Mahinda didn’t do enough to bring about reconciliation – DEW
by Dasun Edirisinghe
The Sri Lanka Communist Party (CP) yesterday welcomed Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera’s statement at the UNHRC sessions in Geneva as it had promised a solution to war crimes allegations through a domestic inquiry.
CP Leader D. E.W. Gunasekera said that his party had been calling for such action since the end of the conflict in May 2009. Gunasekera said he had always appreciated President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s leadership to ending the war.
“As the acting foreign minister at the end of the war, I know the international pressure brought to bear on the Sri Lankan government to stop it to allow LTTE leader Prabhakaran to flee, but President Rajapaksa did not give in to such pressure,” he said
The veteran politician said several countries including China, Iran, Pakistan, Vietnam, Russia and India had supported Sri Lanka’s effort to eradicate terrorism, but some countries had pressured the Sri Lanka government to stop the war.
The Rajapaksa government’s efforts to bright about reconciliation however were not sufficient after the war and that was the reason for calling for an international probe by the Tamil diaspora and other LTTE sympathisers, Gunasekera said.
King Dutu Gemunu killed King Elara in battle, but he built a monument for the fallen enemy and asked people to honour it to bring about reconciliation, the CP leader said.