Wigneswaran accuses UN envoy of toeing Government line

Chief Minister of North has accused UN Resident Coordinator to Sri Lanka of grossly ignoring war crimes probe and toeing the government line.

Making a special statement at the Provincial Council assembly, CM Wigneswaran said that newly-appointed UN Permanent Representative Una McCauley has sent him a report titled “Peace-building Priority Matrix” and solicited his views on that.

He said that he scanned through the report and it was all about establishing peace and reconciliation “and the action she proposes to take in this regard” as the Colombo head of UN.

“The damages resulting from the war crimes are the underlying reasons for the need to build peace and reconciliation. Therefore, the UN should take action to probe war crimes adequately. The UN Resident Coordinator did not mention anything about the action necessary for war crime probe or actions necessary to implement it, in her report,” he said.

“There was no mention about war crimes probe at all in her report. I am in the process of preparing my response. I will send it soon,” he said.

The Chief Minister presented the UN envoy’s report to the assembly and urged the council members to reflect their views on that.

“I expect your views on this report, and will incorporate them in my reply to her. I will submit my reply to this assembly too,” Justice Wigneswaran said.

The retired Supreme Court Judge said that UN envoy’s report was talking about “transitional justice, reconciliation, governance, resettlement and durable solutions”.

“But there was no mention of war crimes probe or the appointment foreign judges, prosecutors or how to incorporate war crime laws in the constitution,” he said.

“When looking at this, she proposes to take action in support of some of the actions of the government. Importantly, many of the recommendations made by the UN High Commissioner in the UN are missing in this report,” he said, stressing that genuine peace can be achieved only by addressing the entire issue in the peace-building exercise. (Ceylon News)