EU plaudits for Lanka

Govt’s presentation impresses European Parliament:

Rafik Jalaldeen

COLOMBO: The Government scored a huge victory at Tuesday’s public hearing of the European Parliament relating to Sri Lanka in Brussels when the Lankan delegation successfully countered all allegations levelled against it about the misuse of tsunami funds and human rights violations.

“The European Parliament Development Committee was impressed after hearing the presentation of the Government delegation and expressed its satisfaction on the progress Sri Lanka has made in the re-construction of affected areas,” Defence Spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said.

He said following the hearing the Committee agreed to grant more tsunami funds and a meeting will be held soon to discuss this aspect, he added.

A special meeting was held by the Development Committee of the European Parliament in Brussels relating to Sri Lanka on Tuesday.

“The meeting brought a great victory to the country despite all the allegations made by some political parties and organisations that tsunami funds should be stopped and that the Government is misusing the tsunami funds and human rights violations have increased,” Minister Rambukwella told mediamen at yesterday’s weekly Defence briefing.

The hearing was held in two parts. The first part dealt with the impact of the post tsunami reconstruction in Sri Lanka and Indonesia and the second part was dealing with the human rights situation and space given to the practise of human rights in Sri Lanka.

The Minister observed that certain politicians and organisations tried their utmost to halt tsunami funds flowing to the country by raising human rights and media freedom slogans instead of spotlighting LTTE terror and their ruthless killing of innocent civilians.

“No one spoke a word about the LTTE and their terrorist activities. Instead they sanitised the LTTE and suppressed talk about terrorism. But their attempt failed and the Government achieved a huge victory,” he added.

“Several members of the European Parliament condemned terrorism by the LTTE treating it as a cause of concern. They also urged the LTTE to return to the negotiating table.

Some Members of the European Parliament identified terrorism as the root cause of the prevailing situation in Sri Lanka and highlighted the complete denial of the human rights for civilians in areas under LTTE control,” Rambukwella pointed out, adding that the representatives of the EC welcomed the commitment of the Government to ensure humanitarian supplies to the affected civilians.