We Can't Survive in Isolation, Says Prez

Speaking at a function here on Monday, Sirisena said Lanka was “duty-bound” to answer the charges because it couldn’t survive “in isolation”.

COLOMBO  Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has told Lankan security forces personnel that Lanka was answerable to the international community regarding charges of human rights violations during Eelam War IV, and that any attempt to dodge the issue would lead to the country’s isolation from the rest of the world.

But while saying so, the President assured the troops that the idea behind the proposed war crimes investigations was “to find out the truth and not to punish security forces personnel.” 

Speaking at a function here on Monday, Sirisena said Lanka was “duty-bound” to answer the charges because it couldn’t survive “in isolation”. “I cannot listen to my critics and quit the UN and other world bodies and shun  the help of other nations. It is my aim to reduce the pressure from the international community by the end of my tenure,” Sirisena said.

Referring to the rise of Sinhalese nationalism in the form of the Sinha Ley (blood) movement, the President said the blood that runs in everyone’s veins, irrespective of ethnicity and religion, is the same, and vowed to fight divisive tendencies.

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