Int'l community satisfied with development process - FM

Uditha Kumarasinghe, Irangika Range and Sandasen Marasinghe

Kotte: Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told Parliament yesterday that the international community is satisfied with the development process in Sri Lanka in the context of a democracy that is fighting terrorism while preserving the fundamental rights and freedoms of its people.

He said the coming weeks should be important in further confirming to the world Sri Lanka's commitment in empowering the people of the Northern and Eastern Provinces in managing their own affairs.

The election which will be held on March 10 to appoint new local bodies in Batticaloa would be a significant first step towards democratisation of areas which were previously terrorised by the LTTE.

He said that the international community will be closely watching as to how this process is concluded.

He said the major objective of UN Assistant Secretary General Political Affairs Angela Kane's visit was aimed at strengthening UN-GOSL relations in the backdrop of various incidents in the recent past and mounting criticism of the UN in the Sri Lankan press. T

She undertook a field visit to Batticaloa which has the second largest UN staff presence in Sri Lanka and expressed satisfaction on the development of the district in particular the speedy resettlement of internally displaced people.

She also agreed that there is a need in the East for transition from humanitarian projects to livelihood projects and pledged to explore further UN support towards this end.

He said due to the prompt action taken by the Foreign Ministry both in Colombo and in the capitals, that we have succeeded in preventing the inclusion of Sri Lanka on the agenda of the forthcoming Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) to be held in Beijing in October 2008, for which the preparatory meeting was hold in Slovenia on March 2 and 3.

Sri Lanka's capacity to have thwarted this surreptitious effort to include on the agenda of the ASEM is testimony to the fact that we do have friends with influence and that the Ministry has the capacity to successfully lobby them in times of need.

He said that the 7th session of the UN Human Rights Council opened in Geneva on March 3rd 2008.

Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights Mahinda Samarasinghe speaking at the high level segment of the HRC on the 3 has already briefed the council on various aspects of Sri Lanka's commitment towards the promotion and protection of Human Rights as well as the consistent policy of openness and transparency with the international community which is being followed by the Government.

As stated by my colleague in Geneva, Sri Lanka's position is that while we do not hold ourselves above criticism from tell meaning and genuine partners' at the same time we don't however welcome efforts to denigrate and weaken us in the eyes of the International community to achieve propaganda and to fulfil narrow political motivated objectives.

This will be the sprit of participation of the delegation at the HRC.