Rajiva Wijesinha

“ The Peace Secretariat is sorry that the latest venture of Amnesty International into international politics should have coincided with a terrorist attack which left 26 people dead and more dying. Amnesty will doubtless claim justification, in that it proclaimed that ‘The end to the ceasefire could unleash fresh violence’ but it seems that its main worry is that this fresh violence ‘will lead to serious human rights violations, including arbitrary detentions and mass displacement of civilians’. ”

“ Terrorism, as Amnesty should know, is ruthless in its use of violence to take life, as was seen in the bomb attack on Buttala. Amnesty may claim that this was the result of the abrogation of the Ceasefire, forgetting the bomb attack on a bus in Colombo on January 2nd before the Ceasefire was abrogated, forgetting the bombs in Colombo and Kebetigollawa towards the end of last year, forgetting the thousands of violations against the Ceasefire which the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission found the LTTE guilty of. ”

“ It does not need sanctimonious reminders that a political solution is essential for political problems, and it will pursue such a solution to the best of its ability, regretting the failure of the sanctimonious to persuade those who refuse to talk to return to negotiations. ”