German parliament rejects Lanka motion

The governing coalition in the German Bundestag (German Parliament), rejected a motion on Sri Lanka titled “Use the UN Human Rights and Reconciliation Process in Sri Lanka”, with majority votes on February 28.

The Opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD) group in parliament presented the motion signed by its Chairman Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who was a former Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs and a former candidate for the German Chancellor.

Since the Federal Government was already working actively with the International community and SL Government, Parliamentarian Jurgen Klimke for the ruling Christian Democratic Party (CDU) argued that there was no need for the motion as the related issues to the motion were being addressed.

Parliamentarian Pascal Kober of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) said in the promotion of peace and Human Rights in Sri Lanka, the FDP-led Federal Ministry and the Federal Government were very active.

“With these activites, the governing coalition supports the long-term process of reconciliation between the former conflicting parties in Sri Lanka and thus promotes the step-by-step realization of Human Rights by the Sri Lanka government,” he said.

Preventing internal conflicts developing Human Rights violations was the responsibility of of the international community, argued Parliamentarian of Alliance 90 / the Greens and Chairman of the Human Rights Committee of the German Parliament Tom Koenigs.

Tom Koenigs said that German should be the first to ensure better protection from the gravest Human Rights violations while the proceedings in the German Parliament was closely monitored by the Sri Lankan Embassy in Berlin.

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