Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera today defended a UN Resolution on Sri Lanka which was passed by the UN Human Rights Council in 2015.
The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) said that it will not recognize the Resolution if it comes to power.
Samaraweera said that by December 2014, Sri Lanka had become isolated on the international stage with the security forces deprived of peacekeeping opportunities and training opportunities and the economy burdened by debt taken at commercial rates for vanity projects.
He said that following the Presidential Election on 08 January 2015, based on the mandate received from the voters to implement the 100 Day Programme, the Government presented its own proposals and co-sponsored Resolution 30/1 to regain and reassert Sri Lanka’s sovereign right to solve its own problems locally, so that space for any further international action or strictures would not be open.
“This was the path to establish durable peace and reconciliation in our country, restore Sri Lanka’s dignity on the international stage as a state that takes responsibility to address the problems of all sections of its own citizens, renew Sri Lanka’s engagement with the international community, rebuild eroded trust and confidence, restore the dignity of our security forces, police and judiciary, and usher in the sustained stability required for investor confidence and durable prosperity for all our citizens,” Samarweera said.
He noted that as a result of Resolution 30/1 prospects for international action initiated through resolution 25/1 of March 2014 and the OISL (OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka) that was adopted during President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s regime was effectively halted.
“It is important to remind everyone that it is only if we as a responsible and sovereign nation fail to act that we place our citizens in grave peril by allowing space for others to step in, and international action as well as universal jurisdiction to apply,” he said.
Samaraweera said that in 2015, Sri Lanka ceased to be the pariah nation, took control of the accountability and reconciliation agenda and regained its place as a responsible sovereign nation alongside the rest of the world. (Colombo Gazette)