Friday, 11th July 2014
By Saman Indrajith
The government yesterday said it did not intend to engage South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa or the South African government as an international mediator here.
Responding to a series of questions raised by JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Deputy External Affairs Minister Neomal Perera told Parliament yesterday that Ramaphosa had visited Sri Lanka at the invitation of the government of Sri Lanka.
During a meeting between President Mahinda Rajapaksa and President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in November 2013, the former had inquired from the latter what lessons, if it all, Sri Lanka could elicit from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) process in South Africa, the Deputy Minister said. Thereafter, President Zuma had assigned Cyril Ramaphosa, Deputy President of South Africa to share with Sri Lanka South Africa’s experience of the TRC process. Ramaphosa’s visit had, therefore, been undertaken with a view to sharing views on the TRC in order to explore the possibility of Sri Lanka adopting a similar mechanism. For the success of such a domestic reconciliation process all stakeholders had to take part in the Parliamentary Select Committee process, the Deputy Minister said.
The JVP leader said the public wanted to know why the government had invited a South African dignitary after it had adopted a resolution with a two-third majority against international interferences in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs.
From: http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article- details&code_title=106536
