Pivithuru Hela Urumaya party leader Udaya Gammanpila asked President Maithripala Sirisena to explain the basis on which JVP MP Vijitha Herath was appointed to the Constitutional Council as the representative of the minor parties.

In a letter to the President, Gammanpila said that this appointment was done without consulting the MPs of the UPFA and other minor parties.

Gammanpila recently said that he was contemplating legal measures on this issue.

Pivithuru Hela Urumaya Leader Udaya Gammanpila yesterday threatened to take legal action if JVP parliamentarian Vijitha Herath is not removed from the Constitutional Council.from the members of the Constitutional Counsil.

Addressing a media briefing, Gammanpila stressed that Herath cannot be accepted as the representative of the minor parties in the Constitutional Council.

The representative of the minor parties should be decided by MPs who do not belong to the Prime Minister's party and the Opposition Leader's party, argued Gammanpila. If there are more than one name proposed, these MPs can decide on whom to be appointed, he added.

"If we get to know the name of our representative in the Council through media, where is the democracy," Gammanpila asked.

Furthermore, he vowed to take legal action against President Maithripala Sirisena and Speaker Karu Jayasuriya if they fail to remove Herath and let the MPs decide on their representative.

Pivithuru Hela Urumaya leader Udaya Gammanpila said that the legal system of Sri Lanka does not prohibit a special hybrid court from being established to investigate an internal matter of the country.

Speaking to Asian Mirror on Wednesday (16), he said that despite this being the case, the government does not have a mandate to introduce such a tribunal.

The government came to power, promising that a local mechanism will be instituted. As such the government cannot let a hybrid system to be implemented, he said.

Meanwhile, Gammanpila said that he will be introducing an Indemnity Bill to release the armed forces personnel from any accusations on what they did in good faith, in carrying out their duty. According to a judgment made by former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, when there is a clash between international law and internal law of the country, priority should be given to the local law, he elaborated. Therefore if the Indemnity Bill passes, then the proposed hybrid court will not be able to probe in to alleged war crimes, he asserted.

The United Nations today called on Sri Lanka to set up a special court, including international judges and lawyers, to investigate what it called “horrific” abuses committed by both sides during the country’s civil war.

Releasing the Office of the High Commissioner's Investigation Committee on Sri Lanka (OISL) report, the UN Human Rights Chief said that a purely domestic mechanism cannot be trusted due to decades of violation of human rights.

Pivithuru Hela Urumaya leader Udaya Gammanpila said that he will introduce an Indemnity Bill to Parliament as a Private Member's Bill, if the UN Human Rights Council report on Sri Lanka contains serious accusations against the Sri Lankan armed forces.

Gammanpila said that the concept of an Indemnity Bill was introduced by the British and was used three times in the modern Sri Lankan history. The British used it in 1915 following the Sinhala-Muslim clashes and the Sri Lankan government passed an Indemnity Bill in Parliament with respect to the 1971 Insurrection. A similar Bill was passed in Parliament in 1988, during the JVP insurrection in the late 1980s, Gammanpila said.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner’s Investigation on Sri Lanka or OISL report will be released today by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussain. Speaking at the inaugural session of the 30th UNHRC Session, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussain said that the findings on the OISL "are of the most serious nature".

Pivithuru Hela Urumaya General Secretary Udaya Gammanpila said that Speaker Karu Jayasuriya was not wrong in electing TNA leader R. Sampanthan as the Opposition Leader.

Speaking to Asian Mirror, he said that the UPFA General Secretary Prof. Vishwa Warnapala, had sent a letter to the Speaker informing him that the UPFA does not wish to make a request for the Opposition Leader position.

Gammanpila said that the Speaker showed the letter to the MPs who had protested at the decision, informing them that he had acted upon the letter.

He added that the Speaker should have told the Parliament that he had received such a letter.

Gammanpila said that the letter had been sent without informing the MPs who had handed over a letter to President Sirisena, asking him to name Kumara Welgama as the Opposition Leader. It is those who sent the letter to the Speaker that should be blamed for what happened, Gammanpila insisted.

Fifty five UPFA MPs signed a letter requesting the naming of Welgama as the Opposition Leader. It was handed over to the President on September 1.

Pivithuru Hela Urumaya General Secretary Udaya Gammanpila said that the decision by the Speaker to deny party leader status to constituent parties elected to Parliament through different alliances was an attempt to restrict the voices in opposition.

Speaking to Asian Mirror, Gammanpila said that in the preceding two Parliaments, party leader status was granted to leaders of all parties elected under different alliances. However, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya has now decided that the parties which officially elected MPs will be given this privilege.

Accordingly, the United National Party, the United People’s Freedom Alliance, the Tamil National Alliance, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and the Eelam People’s Democratic Party leaders will be given party leader privileges.

This move will affect several party leaders elected through the UPFA and even Rishad Bathiudeen of the ACMC and Athuraliye Rathana Thera of the JHU, who were elected through the UNP, Gammanpila said.