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Sri Lanka 'cannot backtrack' on foreign judges – Sumanthiran

Tamil National Alliance MP M A Sumanthiran stated that the Sri Lankan government “cannot backtrack” on implementing a UN resolution which will see foreign judges involved in a accountability mechanism.

“The TNA is very firm on an investigation with the involvement of the foreign legal luminaries,” said the parliamentarian in an interview to Ceylon Today.

Speaking on his meeting with the UN human rights chief Zeid Raad Al Hussein, Mr Sumanthiran said “even the UNHRC Commissioner is firm on implementing whatever agreed upon by the Lankan Government in the resolution".

"So, the Lankan Government cannot backtrack from what it had agreed upon on accommodating the foreign legal luminaries.”

The lawmaker also touched on an eventual political solution to the ethnic conflict on the island, stating that “as far as the TNA is concerned a final political solution based on a federal system will only fulfil the political aspirations of Tamils in the North and East”.

“Even the Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera has mentioned the necessity of finding a political solution to the ethnic crisis through the new Constitution,” he continued. “So I have clearly stated that a political solution to the ethnic question could only be found through a new Constitution with a federal arrangement to the North and East, during my discussion with the UNHRC Commissioner".

See the full text of his interview here.

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