‘Learning from past, avoiding recurrence important’

An important element in a post-conflict nation building is to understand what happened in the past that aided in the conflict, acknowledge the sufferings of all those who were affected in some form or another and to take precautions to ensure that there is no room for further conflicts in future, Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga said.

“The coming months and years are of crucial importance to Sri Lanka as we actively implement the recommendations.

We have already gone before the media when we unveiled the National Plan of Action and we hope to brief the local and international media from time to time as and when it is appropriate to do so,” he said addressing the Defence Seminar 2012 in Colombo on Saturday.

It is important for the government to address some of the grave allegations raised with regard to international humanitarian law and it has often stated that these allegations will be examined and any wrong-doers will be dealt in the normal course of the law of the country. Investigations are already underway and this process is being duly followed, Weeratunga said.

“Any government, whether it had undergone a conflict period or not, has to continue learning on how and what it should do in the best interest of its people. We know that countries without any established conflict can still experience bouts of social unrest that will prevail even for several weeks. As long as there are people or groups harbouring narrow vested interests which they are prepared to achieve at any cost, such a country is always at the risk of inflaming into a conflict or war. Ours is over now,” he said.

“This is our opportunity to learn from what happened, and to make every effort that it will not happen again. I believe that Sri Lanka is travelling on that right track,” the Secretary said.