Resolution against SL in U.S. Congress Sri Lanka says it is against U.S. policy under Democrats and Republicans

• Sri Lankan embassy in Washington said it appeared to be influenced by a  coterie of sympathisers of the LTTE in the US Congress
• Reference to a war and a civil war in the resolution was misleading  since it was an internal conflict between the government forces and a  separatist terrorist organisation

By Kelum Bandara   

Sri Lanka, in a detailed response to the ‘ Resolution No.H.RES.413 introduced by Representative Deborah K. Ross in the U.S. House of Representatives, said this draft was at significant variance with the U.S. policy adopted both under Democratic and Republican administrations.   

Sri Lanka has submitted its response countering points in the resolution at length to the State Department. The resolution has been introduced by Representative Deborah K. Ross along with four other Representatives, namely Johnson, Danny K. Davis, Sherman and Manning.   

Asserting that there are many misrepresentations in the Resolution, Sri Lankan embassy in Washington said it appeared to be influenced by a coterie of sympathisers of the LTTE in the US Congress to carry forward the separatist agenda of the LTTE – a proscribed a terrorist organisation in 32 countries including the USA.   
Sri Lanka said the reference to a war and a civil war in the resolution was misleading since it was an internal conflict between the government forces and a separatist terrorist organisation.   

Sri Lanka said the Resolution ignores the fact that the Sri Lankan Forces were fighting against the LTTE which remains listed as a Terrorist Organisation in 32 countries, including in the U.S. since 1997.   
Attention has been drawn to the fact that the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), named the LTTE in 2008 as the ‘most dangerous and deadly extremists’ in the world by whose ‘ruthless tactics, inspired terrorist networks worldwide, including Al-Qaeda in Iraq’.   

Daily Mirror learns that the resolution ignores the present government’s appointment of a Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI) headed by a sitting Supreme Court Judge to review the findings of preceding Commissions and Committees, including the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission(LLRC).   

The Sri Lankan embassy says that Sri Lanka’s withdrawal from co-sponsorship of the UNHRC Resolution 30/1 has no nexus with the ‘Easter Sunday’ terror attack. The present government was elected through a free and fair democratic election process with a two-thirds majority. Also, the embassy rebuffs assertion in this resolution that the north and the east are ‘traditional Tamil homeland’ .   

“Sri Lanka is a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-lingual society, with communities living side by side as documented through our written records of history of over 2000 years. In fact, more Tamil speaking people live in other parts of Sri Lanka than those who are in the Northern and Eastern provinces,” the embassy said. 

*** The resolution ignores the present government’s appointment of a PCoI  headed by a sitting Supreme  Court Judge to review the findings of preceding Commissions and  Committees