AKD urged to reveal how he intends to face Geneva challenge
Posted on February 4th, 2025
By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island
Dr. Bandara
Patriotic National Movement (PNM) yesterday (03) urged the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-led National People’s Power (NPP) administration to reveal how it intends to counter the high profile Geneva project meant to undermine Sri Lanka’s unitary status on the basis of unsubstantiated war crimes accusations.
PNM’s Dr. Wasantha Bandara said that the government owed an explanation to the public as the JVP help elect the treacherous Yahapalana administration that backed a US accountability resolution at the Geneva-based HRC, in October, 2015, against one’s own country.
Dr. Bandara said that the war-winning country celebrates its independence today as Western powers relentlessly pursued an anti-Sri Lanka agenda.
Responding to The Island queries, Dr. Bandara said that the crux of the matter is that the country hadn’t been able to reach a consensus on a counter strategy, even 17 years after the eradication of the separatist LTTE group. Dr. Bandara alleged that in spite of nationalistic groups repeatedly urging successive governments to counter lies, none of them bothered, regardless of Lord Naseby providing Sri Lanka with irrefutable evidence to counter trumped-up Geneva accusations.
Now as the President, Minister of Defence and the Commander-in-Chief of the war-winning armed forces, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, was accountable for Sri Lanka’s response, the civil society activist said. The next Geneva sessions are scheduled for February-April 2025.
Dr. Bandara also questioned the failure on the part of the main Opposition to raise this issue, both in and out of Parliament. The PNM spokesperson acknowledged that the Geneva issue hadn’t been addressed during presidential and parliamentary election campaigns. In spite of the next Geneva sessions, just weeks away, no political party at least referred to the issue, Dr. Bandara said, pointing out that the continuing failure to defend the armed forces was an affront, particularly to those who made the supreme sacrifice.
Over 30,000 armed forces officers and men died during the war. Dr. Bandara said that the treacherous course of action, initiated in 2015, continued unabated, though, in 2020, the government announced that it quit the Geneva process. That much-touted announcement didn’t make any difference, Dr. Bandara said, urging the NPP to act without further delay.