Religious delegation to appeal to EU

A Religious Delegation headed by the Chief Incumbent of the Bellanwila Raja Maha Viharaya and the Chancellor - Sri Jayawardenapura University Most Ven. Bellanwila Wimalaratna Nayaka Thera and Colombo Archbishop Most Rev. Dr. Malcolm Ranjith, Chief Incumbent of the Vidyalankara Pirivena and Chancellor of the Sabaragamuwa University Most Ven. Prof. Kumburugamuwe Vajira Nayake Thera, Director General of Ihsaniyyah Arabic College and the Coordinating Secretary to the President on Muslim Religious Affairs Mohamed Niyaz Moulavi, Chief Priest of the Hindu Community and the Advisor on Hindu Affairs to the Ministry of Education Most Rev. Brahma Sri Kuhananda Sharma, and Director of Caritas Sri Lanka Very Rev. Fr. Damian Fernando left the country on November 2 to meet some of the members of the European Union to appeal to them to continue to grant GSP Plus concession to Sri Lanka.

The delegation met Pope Benedict XVI on November 4 and also His Eminence Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State, followed by a meeting with Italy Foreign Affairs Minister Franco Frattini.

The delegation would proceed to Brussels, London and Paris to meet the other members of the European Union.

In a press release issued on September 21 by Colombo Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, he states "I would appeal personally to our friends in the European Community, to help us bring about true peace and justice to all our citizens by continuing to accord the GSP Plus facility and all the other possible assistance to Sri Lanka. Achieving a sense of trust among us would best be served by that.

Such would also be the best way in which the European Community could help the speedy resettlement of the internally displaced people."

Excerpts from the release: For quite sometime now there has been a discussion on a possible removal of the GSP Plus special concession accorded to Sri Lanka on its exports to Europe by the European Union.

This concession had in fact been graciously accorded to our country by our European friends in the aftermath of the Tsunami disaster which had caused much human and economic damage in December 2004.

This country cannot forget the great sense of solidarity shown to it on that occasion by the European Union both through this gesture as well as other expressions of solidarity. We are truly grateful to them for that.

The best attitude that friendly countries in the West or in the East could take is to help us achieve a stronger sense of unity, accountability and concern for the dignity and rights of our people, by strengthening the hands of the Sri Lankan political, religious and civil society leaders. It is best achieved by a pro-active approach.

In this sense I would appeal personally to our friends in the European Community, to help us bring about true peace and justice to all our citizens by continuing to accord the GSP Plus facility and all the other possible assistance to Sri Lanka.

We therefore fervently appeal to the European Community to be strongly proactive in its approach to Sri Lanka which has a proud history of close links with them, and needs to get back to normalcy soon," the release from the secretary to the Colombo Archbishop Fr. Sunil De Silva states.