Progress in democracy and Human Rights will continue
President tells British Minister:
COLOMBO: As President Mahinda Rajapaksa has made remarkable
and impressive gains in establishing a process for the resolution of
Human Rights issues, the International Community would like to help Sri
Lanka as she makes progress along the lines of action initiated by the
President.
This was the view expressed by Britain’s Lord Malloch Brown when he
met President Rajapaksa at Temple Trees yesterday morning.
President Rajapaksa told the British Minister of State in the Foreign
and Commonwealth Office of the UK with responsibility for Africa, Asia
and the United Nations, of the success in defeating terrorism and
establishing democracy in the East, and of the emphasis on development
there which would send a salutary message to the people in the North.
On the Government’s overall moves for the rehabilitation of those
once engaged in terrorism, he said the present Chief Minister of the
East was once a child soldier of the LTTE.
He said many people who genuinely want change in Sri Lanka, did not
understand the ground realities, vis-…-vis internal politics and related
pressures. Problems were there and solutions had to be political, which
required final endorsement by the people at elections.
There were now signs that the people were backing the changes the
Government was initiating, and this was best seen in the complete defeat
suffered by the moves for a general strike last week.
Lord Malloch-Brown said there was room for much optimism with the
actions taken by the Government to implement the 13th Amendment to the
Constitution, and the changes initiated in the East. However, it
appeared that more action was needed achieve the full results and
benefits of the Government’s moves.
The President said the liberation of the East was completed on July
19, 2007and in less than a year democracy had been restored there.
Change will come, but they will need time, was the view of the
President.
Commenting on the moves to eradicate terrorism, President Rajapaksa
said it was necessary to defeat the LTTE, seeing how it had continued
its war of terror through talks, ceasefires and many other initiatives
for peace.
Lord Malloch-Brown, explaining to the President the British
Government’s policy of acting against terrorism said there were six
pending cases within regard to illegal support for terrorist
organizations and this would send a strong message to all concerned.
The necessity of having a strong institutional arrangement to
safeguard Human Rights was shared by the President and the British
Minister, while the President presented the case for a better
understanding of the constraints that prevailed in establishing such
machinery just now.
But it was the clear intention of the government.On child soldiers,
the British High Commissioner said the government had taken a very
laudable measure in allowing free access to the camps where former child
soldiers were being kept.
The President said those genuinely interested were free to carry out
their inquiries on the numbers of child soldiers still present, but
strongly doubted that those who make allegations about this matter would
give the full details to help such an inquiry, which the government wa
ready to support.
Lord Malloch Brown was accompanied by the British High Commissioner
Peter Hayes, and the President was accompanied by Secretary to the
President Lalith Weeratunga, Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona and Ms.
Kshenuka Seneviratne, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. |