Sri Lanka

Speech by Liz Lynne on Thu 16th Feb 2006

Mr President, it probably would have been better if we had been able to postpone this debate, but it was already on the agenda. We all know the reason we wanted to postpone it was because of the scheduled meeting between the Sri Lankan Government and LTTE in Geneva on 22-23 February.

I, along with everybody else, sincerely hope the talks will be successful. It will be a small step in the right direction if they are. That should improve the implementation of the ceasefire, which, as we all know, is not observed fully by either the Tamil Tigers or the government. We still see a lot of recruitment of child soldiers, which is an absolute scandal.

If we want to achieve a permanent political solution, it is important that we do not just look at the security issues. However, any talks that take place on a political solution must involve the Muslims and other Tamil organisations, as well as the government and the Tamil Tigers. Only by doing that can we have a clear way forward to a permanent solution.