Sri Lanka to raise post-conflict issues at HRC

by Shanika SRIYANANDA

Sri Lanka will discuss the Government’s plans in the post conflict scenario and the controversial Channel 4 issue at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) which commences tomorrow in Geneva.

This is the first session that Sri Lanka is taking part in after eradicating LTTE terrorism. Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said that he would place more emphasis on the steps taken by the Government to resettle IDPs, the means of addressing their livelihood and arrangements to look after them until they are resettled, rehabilitating over 10,000 ex-LTTE cadres, plans to reintegrate them into the society and plans for economic development of the North and the East.

According to Minister Samarasinghe, who left for Geneva yesterday, he will outline plans to create ethnic harmony among different communities by promoting human rights.

“Basically we will discuss the new challenges that we are facing in the post conflict era”, the Minister said. The Minister will also explain the Channel 4 issue and its harmful effects to the country’s image. Minister Samarasinghe will meet the President of the Human Rights Council Martin I. Uhomoibhi, High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay, High Commissioner for Refugees Jose Luis Gutteres and other Ambassadors and High Commissioners of various countries at the sessions. “I will also explain to top UN officials about the Channel 4 issue”, he said adding that the sessions would be a good forum to explain the truth.

Meanwhile, former Foreign Ministry Secretary and Sri Lanka’s new Representative to the UN Dr. Palitha Kohona who is now at the UNICEF Headquarters, New York will meet top UNICEF officials including its Secretary General to discuss the issue of the expulsion of the UNICEF Communication Chief James Elder, who was allegedly carrying out propaganda to support the LTTE.

Elder’s recent statement which said, children locked up in the IDP camps were dying of malnutrition - has been refuted by the WHO which stated that ‘the incidence of malnutrition in the camps is no higher than elsewhere in the country’, made the Government expel him from the country.