Foreign judges is neither the sole obsession of govt.nor int’l community: FM

Foreign Affairs Minister Mangala Samaraweera said having foreign judges to investigate alleged war crimes is neither the sole obsession of the government nor the international community.

He was addressing the media yesterday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.“We remember in 2014 when the international community decided to call for an international investigation in Sri Lanka, only 12 countries stood by our country. This time there was no division or accusations while country after country praised the government and 47 countries offered support to Sri Lanka,”he said.

Minister Samaraweera said that the countries that spoke bestowing their trust in the Sri Lankan government include the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

He further said that the election manifesto clearly states that a domestic inquiry will be set up to look into alleged crimes committed during the country’s civil war.

“When the new government was formed, I requested the UN to allow us to have a domestic inquiry. We said we will produce the road map in September to show the way in which transitional justice will be implemented. They accepted our request and the plan. We are making a progress since October 2015. We again requested that we need more two years and they willingly agreed to it”, he said.

When asked whether the new Constitution will allow the appointment of foreign judges, Minister Samaraweera said that Sri Lanka is not bound to adhere to the resolution as it is a sovereign state.

“Under the system we promoted in 2015 as a sovereign country, the final decision is ours, the UN resolution is not something carved on stone. We will have to decide what we can do and what we cannot do. While taking such decisions, we have to keep the interest of all the stake holders, not only the victims and perpetrators,”he said.

In the past, it was a straw that broke the camel’s back.We don’t want this camel to break its back in the near future. We wish to continue to do the good things that we had been doing.

Speaking about President Maithripala Sirisena’s recent visit to Russia, Minister Samaraweera said it is an important land mark in our diplomatic history where international relations are concerned under the leadership of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

He added that in Geneva, the Human Rights Council upheld and reaffirmed its trust and confidence in Sri Lanka to be in charge of its own reconciliation process.