Tamils issue: Rajapaksa seeks Opposition's views

COLOMBO, June 13, 2011
R. K. Radhakrishnan
Taking into consideration “the tendency of the major Opposition parties to blame the government for all problems,” Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance have lobbed the ball back at the Opposition on what kind of autonomy the Northern Province should get.   
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Responding to recent developments in Sri Lanka including the opening address to the UNHRC on by the UN Human Rights Commissioner, Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander said:

 

Sri Lanka

Responding to recent developments in Sri Lanka including the opening address to the UNHRC on by the UN Human Rights Commissioner, Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander said:

“The recent UN Panel of Experts’ Report on Sri Lanka makes very serious allegations about the conduct of both the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE (Liberation of Tamil Eelam) during the final months of the conflict between January and May 2009. It accuses both sides were guilty of war crimes and human rights abuses.

“The Sri Lankan Government should take the UN report’s findings and recommendations seriously. There have been widespread concerns over its own ongoing enquiry by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission. The Commission should now secure international involvement and should report no later than its new deadline of November 2011. Its findings must take into account the allegations of the UN Experts Report and be credible and transparent.

“The only way to build the peace in Sri Lanka is for there to be a credible reconciliation process in which victims’ families are given justice and the perpetrators of war crimes are brought to justice.”
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As Ban Ki-moon Moves For 2d UN Term, Human Rights Groups Go Silent To Keep Access, Press Controlled

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 13 -- Ban Ki-moon has been subject to critiques for being weak on human rights for nearly all of his four and a half years as UN Secretary General. While such weakness is surely a comfort to many UN member states, to others at least on paper it should be a problem, in supporting him for a second term. So how did Ban seek to turn this around?    Full Story>>>