{"id":67152,"date":"2017-06-21T22:56:41","date_gmt":"2017-06-22T04:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=67152"},"modified":"2017-06-21T15:00:13","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T22:00:13","slug":"geneva-stand-contradicted-in-parliament-the-joint-opposition-leader-dinesh-gunawardena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/06\/21\/geneva-stand-contradicted-in-parliament-the-joint-opposition-leader-dinesh-gunawardena\/","title":{"rendered":"Geneva stand contradicted in parliament – the Joint Opposition Leader Dinesh Gunawardena"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Shamindra Ferdinando\u00a0Courtesy The Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Alleging that the yahapalana<\/i> government had taken contradictory positions in respect of continuing UN interventions made in accordance with 2015 and 2017 resolutions co-sponsored by Sri Lanka, the Joint Opposition Leader Dinesh Gunawardena, MP, yesterday demanded an immediate clarification from the UNP-SLFP coalition.<\/p>\n

Gunawardena accused the government of repeatedly deceiving parliament regarding its Geneva commitments.<\/p>\n

The MP pointed out that Sri Lanka\u2019s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha and Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakse had issued vastly contradictory statements in response to former Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers Monica Pinto\u2019s adverse report taken up at the 35th session of the human rights council. Pinto called for foreign judges and other international experts in proposed war crimes courts in accordance with 2015 resolution.<\/p>\n

Ambassador Aryasinha responded positively to Pinto\u2019s report presented by her successor Diego Garcia-Sayan on June 12. MP Gunawardena pointed out that Sri Lanka thereby had refrained from challenging Pinto\u2019s damaging observations and recommendations.<\/p>\n

MP Gunawardena told The Island<\/i> that Ambassador Aryasinha had reassured Sri Lanka\u2019s commitment to addressing issues raised by Garcia-Sayan and also to provide unhindered access to Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism, the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.<\/p>\n

“A week later, in Parliament, Justice Minister flayed the UN system, alleging the report was meant to substantiate allegations made by NGOs and various other interested parties,” MP Gunawardena said.<\/p>\n

The former minister said the government certainly owed the country an explanation as regards co-operation extended to the UN against the backdrop of Justice Minister Rajapakse\u2019s attack. Obviously, Foreign and Justice ministries couldn\u2019t take different views the campaign for the participation of foreign judges in a war crimes court to be set up here.<\/p>\n

Responding to a query by The Island,<\/i> Gunawardena said that he had moved an adjournment motion in Parliament on June 6,demanding that the controversial Geneva resolution adopted on the basis of unfounded allegations be revoked. MP Gunawardena said that the government had no option but to review its position on 2015 resolution reaffirmed in 2017. The JO leader pointed out that a member of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) Ambika Satkunanathan, too, had recently pointed out that the government had agreed to foreign judges in accordance with the Geneva resolution.<\/p>\n

The MP alleged that in spite of both President Maithripala Sirisena and Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe repeatedly ruling out foreign judges, Geneva had taken up the issue again. The veteran parliamentarian said that the June 12 statement had extensively dealt with the Sri Lankan judicial structures and post-January 2015 developments in respect of the judiciary.<\/p>\n

Due to UNP-SLFP coalition\u2019s failure, Geneva was pushing for defence lawyers, prosecutors and investigators in addition to judges in an unconstitutional \u2018hybrid\u2019 court, Gunawardena said.<\/p>\n

Former UPFA MP and navy Chief of Staff Sarath Weerasekera, too, made representations on the sidelines of Geneva sessions against Pinto\u2019s report.<\/p>\n

MP Gunawardena said that the yahapalana<\/i> statements on Pinto\u2019s report had exposed growing divisions within the coalition.<\/p>\n

Responding to another question, Gunawardena said the JO would like to know whether the yahapalana<\/i> constituents, particularly the SLFP shared Minister Rajapakse\u2019s views or subscribed to the June 12 statement made in Geneva. Gunawardena alleged that having accepted Western powers\u2019 backed TNA and Tamil Diaspora proposals for foreign judges, yahapalana leaders were now pulling in different directions.<\/p>\n

The JO leader appreciated the Justice Minister\u2019s stand on Pinto\u2019s report.<\/p>\n

He asked whether the Justice Minister\u2019s position was acceptable to the rest of the UNP parliamentary group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Shamindra Ferdinando\u00a0Courtesy The Island Alleging that the yahapalana government had taken contradictory positions in respect of continuing UN interventions made in accordance with 2015 and 2017 resolutions co-sponsored by Sri Lanka, the Joint Opposition Leader Dinesh Gunawardena, MP, yesterday demanded an immediate clarification from the UNP-SLFP coalition. Gunawardena accused the government of repeatedly deceiving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-security","category-terrorism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67152\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}