Thursday, January 26, 2012

LLRC report not be submitted to UNHRC - Minister Peiris

The government will not submit the report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) during the sessions in March, Minister of External Affairs Prof. G.L. Peiris told reporters in Colombo today.

Sri Lanka was a sovereign nation and the report was commissioned by the state, said Peiris, adding that the island had no obligation to submit the document to the UN rights body.

Addressing the media following the arrival of Indonesian Foreign Minister Dr. Marty Natalegawa, Prof. Peiris said that Sri Lanka had no obligation to submit the Commission’s report to the UNHRC since Sri Lanka was a sovereign nation and the report was commissioned by the state.

However the Minister also added that while the LLRC report would not be submitted to the UNHRC, there was still two months to go before the session during which period the government hopes to implement some of the recommendations of the Commission.

The next sitting of the UNHRC summit is scheduled to take place in Geneva, Switzerland in March.

Colombo’s special human rights envoy Mahinda Samarasinghe told Ceylon Today earlier, that the government is confident about the report and expects no trouble during the march sittings.

 Minister Peiris made the comments during a media brief marking the visit by the Indonesian Foreign Minister Dr. Marty Natalegawa.

Natalegawa was in Colombo following an invitation by his Sri Lankan counterpart to mark six decades of diplomatic relations with the East-Asian nation.

Colombo-Jakarta relations are expected to peak over the coming years, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement, and said that trade is pitched to reach US$ 1 billion within the next three years.
 
Natalegawa arrived in Colombo on Tuesday, and is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with the Sri Lankan government. He is also carrying an invitation by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the Indonesian President, inviting for a state visit.
 (Ceylon Today Online)