Different agenda behind her visit - Minister Rambukwella:

Pillay attempts to pay floral tribute to terrorist leader

by our Diplomatic Correspondent

UNHRC chief Navi Pillay’s request to pay a floral tribute during her recent visit to the North had been rejected by the Government.

Informed sources said that Pillay had initially informed of her desire to offer a floral tribute to the late LTTE terrorist leader Velupillai Prabhakaran at a location in the North. However, the Government had turned down Pillay’s request.

Pillay’s controversial behaviour would prove that she had arrived in Sri Lanka on a specific mission with presumptions. Though she had declared that she was coming to Sri Lanka with an open mind at the time of her arrival, she had made several controversial moves and statements. “It is crystal clear that she was here to put her agenda in motion,” a political analyst said after her controversial news conference in Colombo yesterday. Media and Information Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said the visiting UN Human Rights High Commissioner’s statement on Sri Lanka becoming an authoritarian state leads to a reasonable doubt that there is a different agenda behind her visit, since all tools of a democratic government are currently in place.

“There is a stable government at present with a legal system in place backed by a proper law enforcing mechanism. Elections are held in keeping with the constitution and there had not been serious allegations made against them. And after thirty years elections are now being held in the North which is a healthy sign of a democratic country,” the Minister said.

“Therefore we have a reasonable doubt that Navanetham Pillay had a different agenda since none of the factors of democracy had been violated in Sri Lanka,” Minister Rambukwella added.

He further said that the principles of the constitution have been adhered to and the rights of people ensured.

Pillay deviated from her provided schedule last week, much to the surprise of the special security personnel assigned to her by the Government. Deviating from her official schedule, Pillay met a prominent Christian priest in the Trincomalee district.

Discussions between her and the priest had lasted for nearly an hour after which she had left for Colombo. The UN Mission in Colombo is reportedly had arranged a meeting between Pillay and Rev. Fr. Y. Yogeshwaran, a prominent human rights activist of a non-governmental organisation named Jesuits Academy-Foundation for Nonviolent Communication, located at Inner Harbour Road, Trincomalee. The TNA too had played a similar role by handing over the same report, which Fr. Yogeshwaran had handed over to Pillay.