GSP plus conditions :

Firm no by Govt

* Clear case of interference

* Impinges on sovereignty

Dharma SRI ABEYRATNE

The Government will never accept the terms and condition of the European Commission by betraying the country for the sake of obtaining the GSP Plus concession, Cabinet Spokesman and Mass Media and Communications Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said.

The Minister addressing the weekly Cabinet briefing yesterday in Colombo said that the European Commission has forwarded 15 conditions to the Government to be carried out for the continuation of GSP Plus concession.

The Minister pointed out that those conditions are not related to the GSP or labour laws but impinge on the sovereignty of a nation.

The European Commission has forwarded these conditions by letter dated June 17.

By this letter the EC has insisted on the Government to carry out these conditions as list of actions which can harm the sovereignty of any country.

According to these conditions the EC insisted on the Government to ensure the key objective of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, repeal of the remaining part of the 2005 Emergency Regulations, repeal of those sections of the Prevention of Terrorism Act which are incompatible with the ICCPR or amend them so as to make them clearly compatible with the ICCPR and reduction of the number of derogations to the ICCPR.

According to these conditions the EC also insisted on legislative steps necessary to allow individuals to submit complaints to the UN Human Rights Committee under the First Optional Protocol to the ICCPR and to the UN Committee against Torture under Article 22 and many other conditions which are not related to GSP or labour law.

In addition the EC asks the Government to take decisive steps to bring to an end the detention of any persons including LTTE combatants held under the Emergency Regulations either by releasing them or by bringing them to trial.

Many of these conditions were usually put forward by UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, Karu Jayasuriya, Mano Ganeshan, Rauf Hakeem from time to time in Parliament and a few NGOs who work to the LTTE agenda, the Minister noted.

He said it is clear to any right thinking individual that conditions of this nature are directly linked to the internal affairs of a Government.

“How can any party intervene in the internal affairs of a sovereign and independent country.”

“The Government will not accept any condition of the EC as it is a shame for any person with a backbone to pay heed to these conditions, ” Minister Rambukwella said.

The Minister noted that the Government will take measures to capture the international market even without the GSP Plus. Sri Lanka is quite capable of managing this situation, he said.

“It will not matter if the GSP plus is not received. “We have taken that challenge,” he said.