He told The Island that the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime since the war ended had failed miserably on the diplomatic front, resulting in unwarranted external pressure much to the detriment of the country’s interests.
Having asked the UN to wait until local inquiries into accountability issues were over, the government had now decided against presenting the LLRC Report in Geneva, which would only complicate matters further, the MP said.
The LLRC Report had confirmed more than 90 percent of the UNSG Ban Ki-moon commissioned Darusman Report and the Rajapaksa regime having become a prisoner of its own investigative mechanism, was fudging not knowing which way to go, Kiriella said adding that it has now floated a ‘time buying farce of a Human Rights Action Plan’, but it would not be able to hoodwink the UN and western nations led by the US, which had already issued an ultimatum to address accountability issues relating to the final stages of the war with the LTTE.
MP Kirielle said that the Human Rights Action Plan had been drawn up an year ago, after obtaining the views of a cross section of civil society including human rights activists, but the government had without presenting it to Parliament, watered it down to such an extent that the very purpose of introducing the action plan had been negated.
If human rights were to be safeguarded, the Human Rights Commission should be permitted to work without political interference, Kirielle said.
Kiriella said that the HRC did not have powers to enforce its orders nor did the proposed action plan provide for it, since the 17th Amendment, which established independent commissions that could enforce the law, had been abolished by the draconian 18th Amendment which was rushed through Parliament.
In 2007, the government had agreed to introduce the Witness Protection Bill, which would have given credibility to the HRC, but that pledge was yet to be honoured, Kirielle said.
by Zacki Jabbar
IS