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CPA welcomes end of military hostilities

The Centre for Policy Alternatives in a media release says that it ‘salutes their resilience and pay our respects to our fellow citizens who sacrificed their lives and who sustained grievous injuries to bring the military hostilities to a conclusion’.
The statement in full:
“The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) welcomes the end of military hostilities in Sri Lanka’s protracted ethnic conflict and the alleviation of suffering it brings to the tens of thousands of civilians who were trapped in the fighting.
We salute their resilience and pay our respects to our fellow citizens who sacrificed their lives and who sustained grievous injuries to bring the military hostilities to a conclusion. We hope that that the grave and continuing human rights and humanitarian challenges faced by internally displaced civilians and a political settlement to the ethnic conflict, will be rapidly addressed within the framework of peace, national unity and reconciliation, thereby ensuring that the grievances that led to violent conflict in our country in the past will not be reproduced.
“We believe, in particular, that a historic political opportunity has now been created to find an appropriate constitutional settlement to the conflict. To this end, we welcome the reiterated commitment expressed by His Excellency the President to find a durable political solution to the challenges of diversity and pluralism, the mismanagement of which has sadly led to violent conflict in the past. We urge the President to accelerate this process so that the legitimate aspirations of all the peoples of Sri Lanka could be meaningfully addressed, and those who have been alienated through conflict and violence can be persuaded to return to the democratic mainstream. Peace and reconciliation requires magnanimity in victory and a sincere acknowledgement of the vast sacrifices in human lives and property Sri Lankans of all ethnicities and religions have incurred during the past three decades. We hope the search for a new constitutional settlement, with the opportunity for a fresh articulation of our basic social contract that unites us in our diversity as well as our shared destiny, will be informed by the values of democracy, pluralism, tolerance, inclusivity, and respect for human rights.
“As a society, we continue to face great challenges: of peace and democracy, of economic development and prosperity, the culture of impunity in respect of human rights violations and of good governance. Conflict has in the past ensured that Sri Lanka has been tragically unable to fulfill its significant potential, but now we have another opportunity to address these issues. That opportunity must be grasped wholeheartedly. We must do so with hope and optimism, confidence in our capacity, with generosity of spirit, and a commitment to ensuring that the pursuit of happiness and human dignity is a realised right of our common citizenship. In short, we must ensure that we build a new Sri Lankawhich belongs to all Sri Lankans, and of which all Sri Lankans can be proud.”
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