Sri Lanka Slams US Over Rights Resolution

New Delhi, Feb 3, IRNA -- Sri Lanka Sunday slammed as ˈintrusiveˈ a US move to sponsor a third resolution against it at the UN rights body criticizing its post-war reconciliation and said such action only serves to polarize the country. Commenting on the visit by US Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Biswal, the External Affairs Ministry of Sri Lanka in Colombo said, ˈIt is evident from this visit and that which preceded from the US, as well as intrusive behavior by other representatives of that country, that there is a desire to believe the worst of Sri Lanka and seek to build on that premise to justify punitive action against the country.ˈ The Ministry said Biswalˈs claims on the pace of implementation of its own Lesson Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), allegations of religious intolerance or insufficient progress in addressing reconciliation and accountability, are unsubstantiated, the PTI reported. Slamming the US decision to table a consecutive resolution against the country at the UN Human Rights Council, the ministry said that such action only serves to polarize the communities within Sri Lanka and outside. It said that as a sovereign state and one of Asiaˈs oldest democracies, Sri Lanka does not wish to be dictated by the others in the international community on the conduct of its internal affairs. Biswal, during her visit that ended Saturday, said that international community was fast losing patience with the island nation due to lack of progress in achieving reconciliation. She said that the US will submit a resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva next month. Biswal, an Indian-American, also held meetings with government and opposition leaders, including External Affairs Minister G L Peiris, in Colombo and Jaffna in the Tamil-dominated north. She will now travel to London for meetings with British officials. The UK is expected to cosponsor the resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council. The resolution will build on two others passed in 2012 and 2013. The previous resolutions, backed by India, sought commitments from Sri Lanka on reconciliation and rights accountability. In November, the British Prime Minister David Cameron said that he would call for a UN-backed investigation into allegations of war crime during Sri Lankaˈs three-decade-long civil war unless there was progress on post-war reconciliation by March./end