By Shamindra Ferdinando
Former External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris has urged what he called the minority UNP government to explain its stand on a recent US State Department report that dealt with post-war fund raising activities undertaken by the LTTE as well as several other contentious statements attributed to Rehabilitation Minister D.M. Swaminathan, Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran, Deputy Minister Wijeyakala Maheswaran, UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein and TNA Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran.
Prof. Peiris said that post-war stability and prosperity had been at stake due to the new administration’s failure to take tangible measures to counter the threat posed by the LTTE rump.
Quoting the Country Report on Terrorism released by the US Counter terrorism Bureau, the State Department alleged last Friday that the LTTE’s financial network of support had continued to operate throughout 2014 in spite of its battlefield defeat in May 2009.
The lawmaker accused the government of dismantling post-war counter terrorism structure built by the then Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
MP Peiris said that the government couldn’t ignore the US assessment that the LTTE had extensively used its international contacts and the large Tamil diaspora in North America, Europe, and Asia to procure weapons, communications, funding, and other needed supplies. The group employed charities as fronts to collect and divert funds for its activities; Prof. Peiris quoted the US State Department as having reported.
The former law professor requested the government to call a special cabinet meeting to discuss the situation.
The SLFPer said that the government had ignored a recent statement attributed to Senior U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, ranking member, Senate Judiciary Committee on June 9, 2015. Prof. Peiris alleged that the government had been tight-lipped about Leahy’s call to involve international bodies, such as the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in war crimes investigation process, to provide technical assistance as well as substantive input and help with ‘prosecutorial’ work, evidence-gathering, and judicial decision-making.
Leahy said: “A hybrid mechanism, with international experts involved at the prosecutorial and judicial level, will help ensure that the failings and cynicism associated with past domestic accountability mechanisms are not repeated.”
Addressing the media at Abhayaramaya, Narahenpita, Prof. Peiris said that Rehabilitation Minister Swaminathan’s recent proposal to compensate wounded LTTE combatants at taxpayers’ expense revealed the UNP line of thinking. The UNP suspended the controversial move in the wake of strong opposition, Prof. Peiris said, emphasizing that those who had fought for the division of the country couldn’t be appeased under any circumstances.
Deputy Minister Wijeyakala Maheswaran recent demand that those LTTE suspects held at Anuradhapura prison be prosecuted or released immediately was another cause for concern, Prof. Peiris said. The former Colombo University Vice Chancellor said that political agendas couldn’t be allowed to interfere with national security.
Prof. Peiris, who has authored about a dozen legal textbooks still in use said that the Opposition also expected the government to clarify recent declaration made by M.A. Sumanthiran to the effect that the proposed domestic mechanism should be for the sole purpose of implementing recommendations made by a report on accountability issues scheduled to be submitted to the Geneva-based UNHRC in September. The Opposition lawmaker said that domestic mechanism couldn’t be a rubber stamp for an external investigation launched last year without Sri Lanka’s consent.
The country was facing a major security crisis due to the UNP’s inability to manage rapidly developing situation influenced by Western powers, Diaspora and their agents here, he warned.
Courtesy:The Island