Human Rights sessions in Geneva:
Sri Lanka confident of support from other countries
by Uditha KUMARASINGHE
Public Administration and Home Affairs Minister W.D.J. Seneviratne
said that the Government is confident that countries such as Russia,
China, India and other small countries will get together and stand by
Sri Lanka on the issue of Human Rights during the Human Rights Sessions
now on in Geneva.
The majority of the countries which are members of the United Nations
Human Rights Commission are in favour of Sri Lanka.
They have realised the actual situation that existed in Sri Lanka
when LTTE terrorism took a heavy toll in the country, the Minister told
the Sunday Observer.
Minister Seneviratne said that the entire world rejoiced when
terrorism was defeated and the country was liberated from the clutches
of terrorism.
The people were so jubilant that they celebrated the victory for
several days.
However, some Western countries are now pressing for accountability
and transparency with regard to certain activities alleged to have been
carried out by Sri Lanka during the final phase of defeating terrorism.
“This is very unfair as some Western countries had also helped the
LTTE terrorists at that time to carry out their terrorist activities.
This made things more difficult for us to defeat terrorism.
The Government, however got the support of various other countries to
defeat terrorism, he said. The Minister said that he got the opportunity
to visit East Africa and met some leaders recently.
They said that Sri Lanka, a Third World country, too has its
sovereignty and therefore, attempts at interfering with its sovereignty
and suppressing its independence should be resisted tooth and nail.
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