Aware Colombo ‘fighting terrorism’ - Robert Evans MEP

A visiting European Union delegation Friday came down hard on the government over alleged human rights abuses, but acknowledged that it was ‘involved in the fight against terrorism’.

However, the EU delegation for South Asia relations also expressed confidence that Colombo would take the necessary steps to ensure its GSP+ status would be renewed.

Reading out a press statement, delegation head Robert Evans said the EU Parliament is fully aware that Sri Lanka is involved in the fight against terrorism but still believes that more must be done to defend human rights and put an end to the abductions.

“The European MPs are fully aware that Sri Lanka is involved in the fight against terrorism. It should be defeated for the development of the country,” he added.

“Terrorism has no place. It must end and it must end sooner…We condemn LTTE violence and want them to come to the democratic process. We still believe in a peaceful solution for Sri Lanka. A situation of war is not good for anybody,” Evans said.

The EU delegation, whilst welcoming the beginnings of the democratic process in the East, also expressed concerns about the lack of a timetable for weapons decommissioning adding that the former paramilitaries now running the Eastern Province are reported to still be using child soldiers.

The delegation noted that in several meetings with the media, journalists spoke of continued harassment and the fear of being critical of the authorities. They said they also heard of many cases of media workers being arrested, and learnt that 12 have be killed in recent months, reported the Daily Mirror.

The delegation intends to raise the case of Sunday Times columnist M. Tissainayagam and of his conditions of detention, in the European Parliament, the paper said.

"The European parliament delegation urges the government of Sri Lanka, as a top priority, to organise investigations into these cases," the delegation said in a statement, describing the number of abductions as "frightening".

"The widespread belief that the military and police enjoy impunity does nothing to set ordinary people at ease and may even fuel the LTTE," Reuters quoted the delegation as saying.

Evans says they were informed officially that some 500 members of the military had been investigated for abuses and 100 had been prosecuted or convicted yet to date there is no evidence to substantiate the claims.

“The Sri Lankan Government needs to pay more attention to the repeated tales of human rights violations. The military is immune from prosecution,” he said.

“If the government wants to create a sense of security, it should take serious action against these HR violations,” he added.

The delegation also commended Minister Tissa Vitarana for his attempts to make the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) live up to its name, by including all parties, but stressed that the APRC is incomplete without the participation of the Tamil National Alliance.

In the light of apprehensions, the EU delegation remains extremely anxious about the impact a possible loss of GSP+ status would have on economy and employment in Sri Lanka and urges the Government to do everything possible to effective implement the international conventions that are required in order to address human rights concerns.

“In my opinion, and this is not of the delegation, I don’t think Sri Lanka will qualify for the concession…but the door is not shut,” the Daily Mirror quoted him as saying.

Evans, who lead the seven member delegation on its five day visit to the country, said that this is his personal opinion and no final decision has been made on whether to extend the GSP+ status further.

“The solution is with the Government. It is aware of the issues that form the criteria for granting preferential trade status and it has to act on those issues,” Mr. Evans told reporters at a press briefing, the Sunday Time reported.

However, the Daily News had a different take, quoting Evans as saying “The GSP+ issue is debatable but I am confident that Sri Lanka is capable of addressing the conventions and gaining the GSP+ to develop the economy and employment.”

The trade concession, called the GSP+ scheme, expires in December. It helped Sri Lanka net a record $2.9 billion from EU markets last year, or 37.5 percent of total export income.

"The European Parliament delegation remains extremely anxious about the impact a possible loss of GSP+ status would have on the economy and employment in Sri Lanka," the EU statement said.

Sri Lanka was one of 15 countries granted GSP+ concessions in 2005 to help it recover from the Indian Ocean tsunami.

The island's garment and textile industry, which employs hundreds of thousands of largely rural poor, would be hard hit if the special trade terms were axed.

Speaking to the media after completing a visit to the country, the EU delegation also expressed disappointment as it could not visit Trincomalee, which was the main purpose of its tour to Sri Lanka, on the grounds of last minute security concerns.

“The last minute cancellation and a catalogue of chaos and confusion meant that the delegation did not fly to Trincomalee, despite repeated assurances and endless complications resulted in the party being turned back from Ratmalana Airport destroying months of preparation, time and expense,” EU head of delegation for relations with South Asia, Robert Evans said.

However, the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry says the position articulated by a visiting EU Parliamentary delegation in its statement on not being able to visit Trincomalee is "regrettable" and is open to misinterpretation, citing logistical and procedural reasons on the part of the private aircraft operator for the trip failing to take place.

However Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama had a different criticism of the EU delegation, saying it had taken hasty decisions on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka. He also declared that the EU delegation’s claim that it was prevented from visiting the east was a misinterpretation of what really occurred.

“To know the real situation in a country, one has to visit areas and meet people. The EU delegation had confined itself to Colombo and only met people with their own political agendas,” the Minister said, addressing reporters in Colombo.

“Since they have confined themselves to Colombo and seen the country situation through the eyes of others, they are in no position to make an accurate assessment of the situation,” The Nation newspaper reported him as saying.