GL meets Ugandan leaders for support at UNHRC

External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris who is visiting several African countries to garner crucial support for Sri Lanka at the Geneva sessions of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has met Uganda’s Vice-President and Prime Minister on Tuesday.

At a series of meetings in Kampala with Ugandan Vice President Edward Ssekandi, Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi and Foreign Minister Okello Oryem he said external intervention at this time was unhelpful and would inflict grave damage on a sensitive internal process which was moving forward.

Sri Lanka and Uganda are in the 47-member UNHRC where a US-sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka is scheduled to be presented.
 
“The strength of feeling in the country was reflected in the manifestation of opinion throughout the nation on Monday by all communities in unison,” the minister said adding that all religious leaders including Buddhist prelates and Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith had expressed this view with great emphasis.


At his meeting in Kampala, the minister explained the  substantial progress, which  had  been  made since  the  Lessons  Learnt  and Reconciliation  Commission (LLRC) report was tabled in Parliament  on December 17 last year.

He said the  government had identified the steps required  to implement the major recommendations contained  in  the Report,  together  with  priorities, while  also  assigning  responsibility to different  ministries,  departments and  statutory  corporations  for giving  effect  in  a  systematic  way to  different  categories.

The  minister  laid  particular  stress on  the  work  now being  done  by Sri Lanka’s  Attorney General in respect of  accountability   issues.
 
He said a  significant  development was the  completion  of  a  census  by the  Sri Lankan Government, which enables  war-affected  families  and people  in  the  Northern  Province  to be  determined  on  a  verifiable basis, without  surmise  or  speculation.

“In  light  of  the  results  already achieved in respect  of  a  wide  range of  issues  including  resettlement  of internally  displaced people,  the rehabilitation  of  ex-combatants,  and the  revival  of  the  economy  of those  parts  of  the  country  specially affected  by  the  conflict,  these represent   a  degree  of  progress which  far  exceeds  what  has  been accomplished  in  comparable post-conflict  situations  in  other  regions of  the  world,”  the  minister said.

He said it was less  than  six  weeks between  the  publication  of  the Commission  Report  and  the decision by  the  United  States  to  bring  a resolution  on  Sri  Lanka  at  the UNHRC  sessions. 

“Sri Lanka is entitled to more space and  time  to  continue  its  domestic process untrammeled  by  the  kind of external  intervention  which  is virtually  certain  to  put  in  jeopardy the  task  of  implementation,”  the minister  said. (Kelum Bandara)