Written By Sri Lanka Guardian on September 11, 2012
( September 11, 2012,
Capetown, Sri Lanka Guardian) In August 2012, the Deputy Minister of
International Relations and Cooperation, Mr Ebrahim Ebrahim, accompanied by a
civil society delegation, visited Sri Lanka to meet with the leaders of the Sri
Lankan government, the Tamil community, NGOs and other stakeholders. The visit
formed part of the on-going efforts aimed at addressing the need for the
resolution of the outstanding issues following the end in May 2009 of the bloody
civil war in that country.
The
visit followed an earlier meeting in March 2012, held in Pretoria, between the
Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa, Ms Maite
Nkoana-Mashabane, and the Minister of External Affairs of Sri Lanka, Professor
GL Peiris, where the two ministers discussed, among other things, the need for
the two countries to strengthen and deepen their cooperation and
people-to-people contacts in the context of the resolution of the Tamil Question
in Sri Lanka.
During
his visit to South Africa, Professor Peiris also met with Deputy Minister
Ebrahim, where the two sides discussed the importance of the need for an
inclusive dialogue that would lead to true reconciliation and address the rights
and freedoms of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka.
Deputy
Minister’s visit to Sri Lanka was his second to that country in a space of eight
months, demonstrating the importance and urgency that the South African
government attaches to the Sri Lankan situation.
Since
the end of the war in May 2009 and the release of the UN Secretary General’s
Report of the Panel of Experts in April 2011, as well as the Sri Lankan
government’s own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) Report in
December 2011, there has been a heightened demand and urgency in the
international community for the Sri Lankan government to implement the outcomes
of these Reports and other decisions of the UN Human Rights Council, with
specific empic emphasis on the need to address the accountability issues
following the events of May 2009.
In
its continued interaction with the Sri Lankan government and its leaders on the
issues of reconciliation and nation-building in the post-conflict era, the South
African government has always believed that the domestic accountability issues
must first and foremost be sought at the national level and that there should be
demonstrable and concrete effort and movement in that regard.
The
South African government has further, and on several occasions, emphasized that
a durable and lasting peace would come about in Sri Lanka when the
reconciliation process is underscored by a broad and truly inclusive dialogue
process that addresses the rights and freedoms of the Tamil community and has
the support of the international community and all Sri Lankans within and
outside that country.
