Attitude of rights groups "colonial", Sri Lankan Minister says

Sri Lanka's External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris on Tuesday regretted the rejection by the right groups an invitation extended to them by the Lesson Learnt and Reconciliation Commission to provide their insight and knowledge to the Commission.

"It is profound regret that these organizations in a cavalier fashion have rejected the invitation on the ground, as they said, that the commission does not comply with minimum international Standards," Prof. Peiris said in his Keynote Address to the first International Institute of Strategic Studies-Sri Lanka Foreign Ministry Dialogue in London.
"It smacks of an attitude that is almost colonial, patronizing and condescending, the assumption being that other people must step in because Sri Lankans are unable to chart a course for their own future and must do only at the dictums of others," he said.

The Minister stressed that the government of Sri Lanka is determined to pursue a political solution, but insisted that it must be a political solution decided by the people of the country.

Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa had a series of discussions in this regard with the legitimate Tamil leaders in the country, not the self-appointed guardians of Tamil people who live outside the country and pursuing their own agenda he said.

The Minister reached out to the Tamil diaspora and urged the expatriate Tamil groups understand the situation in the country and join the process of reconciliation.

Prof. Peiris pointed out that the LTTE killed more Tamil political leaders than Sinhala leaders and created a hiatus in Tamil political leadership and the government is in the process of giving space for Tamil people to select their own leaders.

The government is to repeat the democratic transformation that took place in the Eastern Province in the Northern Province with local elections, the Minister said.

Responding to a question, Prof. Peiris said although LTTE is not in a position to restart a war in Sri Lanka, groups in Western countries sympathetic to LTTE are breathing life into the movement with the vast pecuniary resources the LTTE amassed by gun running, and drug and human smuggling.

The LTTE was also in possession of a sophisticated communication network, which he said, is now used with vengeance by these groups against Sri Lanka.

He said Sri Lanka is doing its best to bring these movements to the attention of Western countries.

Prof Peiris was due to hold talks with British Foreign Secretary William Hague and the Defence Secretary Liam Fox, Secretary of State for Defence, among others.