Minister G. L. Peiris tells int’l community:

‘Sri Lanka for home grown solution’

Chaminda PERERA

The Sri Lankan delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva has impressed on the international community that resolving the grievances of Sri Lanka’s communities after the conflict, is an entirely internal matter and that the issue could be resolved by Sri Lanka independently.

Sri Lanka adopted a domestic approach to resolving this issue which is the LLRC process. External Affairs Minister Prof G.L Peiris and the Head of the delegation told the Daily News from Geneva yesterday. He said that the Sri Lankan delegation had spoken extensively to a wide cross section of the international community while in Geneva, which included the president of United Nations Human Rights Council ambassador Laura Dupuy Lassere and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay.

He said that the delegation explained that the LLRC process was opened to the public and that it represented the opinions of diverse population groups within the country.

The External Affairs Minister explained that the LLRC was Sri Lanka’s mechanism to help in finding a home grown solution to these issues.

For this purpose a Parliamentary Select Committee process will also be adopted and the decision arrived at by the PSC will be implemented by the President. Prof Peiris pointed out that it was unfair by Sri Lanka to harass it and to bring pressure on it.

It could affect the reconciliation process. It is only two months since LLRC report was publicised and Sri Lanka should be provided time to implement the recommendations, Minister Prof Peiries said.

But this process could be affected if sections of the West attempt to pressurize it, the Minister noted. He explained that Sri Lanka was targeting the Universal Periodic Review which is to be held in October to highlight the progress it is making in the direction of national reconciliation.

The External Affairs Minister added that these efforts could be hindered by these pressures. He also pointed out to the international community that a number of recommendations made by the LLRC are now being implemented by the different ministries, state agencies and the Attorney General’s department.

Irrigation and Water Resources Management Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva, Plantation industries Minister and Presidential special envoy on Human Rights Mahinda Samarasinghe and parliamentarian Sajin Vass Gunawardena were also among the Sri Lankan delegation in Geneva.