NPC urges govt. to talk to all minority parties

A section of of the international community was planning sactions while Sri Lanka was moving from crisis to crisis, the National Peace Council (NPC) said yesterday.

Sri Lanka had been one of the richest nations in Asia in 1948 and due to actions of all governments, the country was now among the poorest, the NPC said.

NPC head Dr. Jehan Perera said: “Unless there is a strong will and genuine commitment to have a unified country with law that applies to all in equal measure we may not see positive development in the country. The sanctions being planned by sections of the international community cannot be overcome by non-existent strategies as the country moves from one crisis to another. The UN Human Rights Council in Geneva has set up a special monitoring unit to document past and ongoing human rights violations in Sri Lanka. The most recent manifestation of international scrutiny by the EU. Its parliament last week passed a resolution by the margin of 628 votes to 15 to hold Sri Lanka to account on a number of issues.”

Dr. Perera said that if Sri Lanka did not heed the EU resolution, it was possible that GSP+ concessions would be taken away. That could be a severe blow to Sri Lanka’s struggling economy, he added.

“There is another resolution against Sri Lanka before the US Congress. While the US resolution does not have any sanction mentioned in it at the moment, it calls on the Sri Lankan government to address root causes that led to a civil war. At the root of the resolutions against Sri Lanka in international forums is the long unresolved issue of the ethnic conflict and its resolution by political means.

“The NPC believes that resolving these root causes calls for dialogue with the representatives of the ethnic and religious minorities and their political parties. We welcome the meeting between President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the TNA as a first step in that direction which needs to be expanded to include other minority parties. The constitutional reform proposals made by the TNA to the Expert Committee on Constitutional Reform appointed by the President, the holding of provincial elections, which will enable the minority parties to have a share of governance in the country, and the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission to give a definitive account of the war, end the speculations and divisive interpretations and correct the human rights violations of the past may be matters for discussion that can lead to a unified national approach in dealing with the international community to ensure the development of the country.”