Western Govts on set agenda to punish SL

Chamikara Weerasinghe

To allow a visit by UN investigation team to Sri Lanka is to give them a stage to play a drama that has been pre-scripted to punish the government and the country, Constitutional Lawyer, Secretary General of Jathika Hela Urumaya and Western Province Agriculture, Agrarian Development, Minor Irrigation, Industries and Environment Minister Udaya Gammanpila said yesterday.

He said, “Western powers are working to a set agenda to punish Sri Lanka and UN investigation teams will see that their agenda is carried out. So they will prepare reports against Sri Lanka as they have done in the past on many occasions , the latest being the UN Human Rights High Commissioner Navaneetham Pillay’s report on Sri Lanka, which she made and presented before the UNHRC sessions held in Geneva this month, without even making a single visit to the country for the last couple of years despite an invitation extended by the government to visit the country two years ago.”

“Although the UN says that it will not impose sanctions against Sri Lanka in conformity with the US resolution, they may unilaterally decide to do so as the drama unfolds,” said Gammanpila.

He also said that India by voting against Sri Lanka on the US resolution, has isolated itself from the Asian region.

“Tamil separatism is a product of India. When Sri Lanka defeated the LTTE it also contributed to solving the problem of Tamil separatism in India,” he pointed out.

“Sri Lanka solved the problem of Tamil separatism at the cost of many thousand lives , billions of rupees and opportunities,” he explained.

“The problem of Tamil grievances and aspirations has always been a bilateral issue as far as India and Sri Lanka is concerned. India has

isolated itself from the Asian region when it voted in favor of the US-sponsored resolution against its isolated neighbour in Asia. “India told the world that it could not solve its own problems in the region by voting against Sri Lanka and that it could not protect Sri Lanka, one of its closest friends throughout history, against those Western superpowers. It raised doubts among other Asian countries in the region whether it is the regional super power that they should rely on, “ Gammanpila said.

“India voted against Sri Lanka at a time that Sri Lanka has done so much to please India. Sri Lanka has allowed India to run one third of its fuel stations in the country.

We gave them oil exploration sites without calling bids. We leased our petroleum storage tanks in Trincomalee to them,” he said.

“Sri Lanka buys goods from India six times more than what they buy from Sri Lanka,” explained Gammapila. “Given this backdrop, India has bas badly let us down and let the Asian region down by not supporting a small country like Sri Lanka before the Western superpowers, “ he added.