Govt. to appoint committee to probe terrorism: HR Minister

The government is to appoint a committee to analyse the cause for terrorism in the island. It will go into the root causes for separatism to raise its head here and recommend ways to prevent such instances from recurring in future, said Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe this morning (March 12).

On the resettlement process in the North, Minister Samarasinghe said it was being done methodically and not according to how others want. The government has to get approval from the United Nations once de-mining is done. The UN has to give an assurance that the area to be resettled is sans any danger to humans and that it is habitable.

Mr. Samarasinghe said that President Mahinda Rajapaksa had already appointed a six member committee to probe alleged human rights violations during the final phase of the war last year.

While the UN Secretary General wanted to appoint an expert panel to advise him on Sri lankan affairs and the UN’s Human Rights Council wants investigations on alleged war crimes, the Non Aligned nations have endorsed strong protest against such moves targeting Sri Lanka, said Mahinda Samarasinghe. He reiterated that two thirds of the Non Aligned countries were backingSri Lanka.

“It is we here in Sri Lanka who know what Sri Lankans want and not any foreign countries,” asserted Mr. Samarasinghe