Mangala Samaraweera states that Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Presidential Candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa dismissed Sri Lanka’s commitments towards the citizens on human rights, the rule of law, and the processes for truth-seeking.
Minister of Finance mentioned this issuing a statement on certain comments made by the Opposition presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa made at a press conference on the 15th of October.
Samaraweera says that Rajapaksa dismissed the need to address the grievances of the families who had lost their loved ones in the war.
His statement further states that during the Rajapaksa regime, dealing with the ‘conflict-ridden past’ was erred and the country was isolated on the international stage.
This situation was reversed and the country regained its stature following the 2015 presidential election, according to the Minister.
He says that their government reasserted Sri Lanka’s sovereign right to deal with its own issues locally.
He points out that, then-government failed to address the grievances of citizens of all communities in the country despite the adaptation of Sri Lanka’s own United Nations Human Rights resolution in 2009.
Non-implementation of recommendations of the Presidential Commissions appointed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa resulted in the erosion of trust and confidence resulting in a series of resolutions in the Human Rights Council on Promoting Reconciliation, Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka in 2012, 2013, and 2014, stated Samaraweera.
He says, by 2014, the Council had set up an investigation on Sri Lanka called the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) and that this was the first-ever international investigation on a human rights situation in Sri Lanka.
However, in 2015, the new government took control of the accountability and reconciliation agenda and regained the country’s place as a responsible sovereign nation alongside the rest of the world, according to the Finance Minister.
Sri Lanka should be advanced into a developed country with no space for recurrence of conflict, working together in friendship with the international community including the United Nations, concluded Samaraweera.
Full statement issued by Minister Mangala Samaraweera:
Statement by Hon. Mangala Samaraweera - 2019.10.17 by Ada Derana on Scribd
