Prez powerless to prevent some appointments - Minister

Disagreement on OMP

Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe addressing media yesterday

By Shamindra Ferdinando-April 26, 2018, 12:07 pm 

Ports and Shipping Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe yesterday revealed that President Maithripala Sirisena had been powerless to prevent the appointment of certain members to the Office of Missing Persons (OMP), though he had reservations about them.

The Former Presidential envoy on human rights Samarasinghe said so, addressing the media at the SLFP party office at T. B. Jayah Mawatha, Colombo.

The SLFPer declined to name those who hadn’t been able to win President Sirisena’s confidence.

Samarasinghe said President Sirisena had been left with no alternative but to endorse the names, recommended by the 10-member Constitutional Council, established in accordance with the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, enacted in April 2015.President Counsel Saliya Saliya Pieris functions as the Chairman of the OMP. Other members are Ms Jayatheepa Punniyamoorthy, Major General (Rtd.) Mohanti Antonette Peiris, Dr. Sriyani Nimalka Fernando, Mirak Raheem, Somasiri K Liyanage and Kanapathipillai Venthan.

They have been appointed for a three-year period.

Samarasinghe said that President Sirisena had delayed granting approval for OMP members’ appointment for two weeks before endorsing Constitutional Council’s recommendation.

The OMP is one of the four mechanisms, proposed by Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in terms of Resolution 30/1.

Samarasinghe admitted that the 19th Amendment had certainly diluted powers of the executive president to such an extent President Sirisena couldn’t thwart those appointments though he felt they weren’t in Sri Lanka’s interest. Samarasinghe recalled only retired Navy Chief of Staff Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera had voted against the 19 Amendment.

When The Island sought an explanation from Samarasinghe as to the role played by presidential nominee (Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka) in the Constitutional Council and whether President Sirisena had expressed his concerns to the body through his representative, Samarasinghe claimed that the minutes weren’t available to him. Samarasinghe asserted that the Constitutional Council decision must have been adopted with the majority agreeing.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya and Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan are ex-officio members of the Constitutional Council. Of the remaining seven, five were appointed by President on the joint recommendation of the PM and the Opposition Leader, presidential nominee and the power to appoint the 10th member rests with the political parties and groups represented in Parliament other than the two parties represented by the PM and the Leader of the Opposition.

Other members of are Vijitha Herath, John Seneviratne. A.T. Aritaratne, Radhika Coomaraswamy and Shibly Aziz.

UNP MP Wijeyadasa Rajapaksa quit the Constitutional Council in the wake of the UNP depriving him of justice ministry portfolio last August.

Samarasinghe said that Geneva Resolution weren’t not binding. The Island pointed out that though the government had repeatedly claimed that Geneva Resolution wasn’t binding, but it was in the process of implementing its recommendations. Samarasinghe said that Sri Lanka would implement what was acceptable to the current dispensation.

Samarasinghe claimed that President had ruled out the involvement of foreign judges in local judicial mechanism under any circumstances though such a proposal was made to Geneva. Samarasinghe explained measures taken by President Sirisena to ensure foreign judges wouldn’t have any role here as long as he remained the President. Samarasinghe recalled his role as wartime President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s human rights envoy when The Island pointed out that Lord Naseby during a meeting with President Sirisena in London last week had referred to Sri Lanka’s failure to present its case in Geneva and to European countries.