Amnesty International Chief meets Dr.Kohona July 20 2011

The Head of Amnesty International met with the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Dr. Palitha Kohona, to initiate a dialogue on issues relating to Sri Lanka, particularly those arising from the screening of the Channel-4 video, stated the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations.

Dr. Kohona asked AI Chief Jose Luis Diaz and the INGOs not to take on the role of persecuting Sri Lanka without solid facts. He said that because Sri Lanka valued the honour of its security forces, it did not wish to see its military forces which numbered over 200,000 honest and decent men and women and who fought a brutal terrorist group bravely and at immense cost in lives to achieve peace impugned in this manner.

"Sri Lanka was a party to seven core human rights treaties and has been for many years. It was a party to the critical Geneva Conventions. These will govern Sri Lanka’s attitudes", he added.

Dr. Kohona said without the endorsement of the AI, HRW and the ICG, the Channel-4 producer Callum Mcrae’s efforts to screen the video in different places would not have succeeded.

He said accountability issues are being addressed through a domestic process, the LLRC, which has the mandate to deal with infractions of domestic and international standards. It was Sri Lanka’s sovereign responsibility to address such issues itself in the first instance. A Special Unit has been established in the Attorney General’s Department for the purpose of investigating matters referred to it by the LLRC.

He welcomed the AI to stay engaged in an open and transparent dialogue with Sri Lanka.