If Govt fails to manage UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka properly, economic consequences will be catastrophic: Eran

Opposition MP Eran Wickramaratne warned that if the government failed to manage UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka properly, the economic consequences will be catastrophic in future.

“The economic consequences will be catastrophic. A fresh approach will require the implementation of human rights initiatives as identified in Sri Lankan commission reports, where investigations and accountability are dealt with by domestic mechanisms that meet the concerns of the international community,” MP Wickramaratne said in a statement.

Stressing that arriving at the truth is an essential part of the healing and reconciliation process, the Opposition MP noted that this coupled with a fresh diplomatic initiative could avert a further economic and financial crisis within the next couple of years. “We in the opposition will support a progressive fresh initiative in the interest of all our people,”

“This government is stumbling from one crisis to another. Poor economic management, dismal management of Covid-19, and now to disastrous management of foreign diplomatic relations,” he said.

He also noted that the present resolution is heavily weighted towards the correction of the infringements of human rights of the past 16 months over the issues pertaining to the military conflict that ended over a decade ago.

“The government has compounded its policy failures by appointing the wrong persons for defined tasks. The Covid-19 virus containment should have been led by health professionals and scientists from the outset. Our diplomatic initiatives should have been led by foreign policy professionals. An urgent fresh appraisal is needed to minimise the negative economic consequences of the resolution. We must not risk legal battles in foreign jurisdictions, travel bans, economic and trade embargoes,” the statement said.