(Lanka-e-News - 22.Sep.2017, 7.10AM) The government parliamentary group decided that the International convention draft bill for the protection of everyone from forced disappearances which was to be tabled in parliament for a debate yesterday (21) , shall be put on hold.
The parliamentary group which met recently headed by the prime minister after discussing at length decided that this bill shall be taken up at a later date.
According to this draft , only the disappearances after October 2017 shall be considered and not those before that, the P.M. revealed recently . That is ,the bill will not have retrospective effect . Following this revelation , the forces that made supreme sacrifices and worked with commitment to propel this government to power mounted strong opposition on the grounds that innocent persons went missing in the recent past and is not related to the future.
On the other hand the pro Rajapakse murderers resisted this bill if it is to have retrospective operation . Their argument was , that may make the ‘war heroes’ criminals , and may flout traditions.
Editor , Lanka e news earlier on suggested that if the bill is effective from the day following 2009-05-19 ( day the war ended) , it will provide answers to both sides and meet their concerns ; and the constitutional issue pointed out by P.M. is a technological one , and if it is necessary, the rulers must have the cleverness to achieve the desired target by an amendment.
In any case , by this bill not being taken up yesterday (21) for debate , it can be a cause of embarrassment to the president who is currently attending the UN conference of State heads, because the international community is going to ask from the president ‘ Aren’t you not protecting the murderers who caused disappearances in the past ?’ In that event the president will have no answer.
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by (2017-09-22 01:56:54)
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