President at UN Vesak Day:
Buddha’s teachings can resolve today’s conflicts too
It is a great joy to be amongst you today as we
celebrate the United Nations Day of Vesak, here in Bangkok. At the
very outset, allow me to thank the Royal Thai government, United
Nations and the International Council for Day of Vesak, for the
organization of this event, and also for the recognition given to
this most important day in the Buddhist calendar.
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Economics driving politics globally, but posers remain
With economics increasingly driving politics in
the current world order, the reported decision by the US to beef-up
its naval muscle in the Asia-Pacific region may have come as
somewhat of a surprise to many an observer. The development could
seem to be a reconfirmation of the widely held perception that a
rising US-China power struggle would be an essential feature of the
emerging international power system.
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Dramatic night at President’s House 25 years ago
With the collapse of Elephant Pass on April 22
dramatic developments started taking place, again with talks of
Indian food relief and humanitarian aid, possible mediation by
friendly countries, and intervention by the UN Security Council -
this time turning an internal conflict of Sri Lanka into an issue of
internationalised dimension. Information Technology made it so fast.
The preceding few weeks witnessed a situation highly tense and
volatile.
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Former combatants
Another area which does not figure to any great
extent in the National Human Rights Action Plan, but which is also
of great concern currently, is that of former LTTE combatants. This
is understandable for the intial draft of the Plan was prepared in
2009, and concurrently our ministry was working, with ILO
assistance, on a rehabilitation and reintegration programme for
those combatants. So a field of action which seemed a temporary
problem rather than something to be entrenched in a national plan
was omitted, since it should have been dealt with through special
provisions.
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