Statement predetermined or tailor-made:

‘Navi Pillay failed to take ground realities into account’

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

Mass Media and Information Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said it was regrettable that the UN Human Rights Commissioner Navanethem Pillay had not taken the ground realities into account when she made the statement prior to her departure from Sri Lanka.

The Government felt that the UN Human Rights Chief’s statement was predetermined or tailor-made with vested interests, the Minister told the Sunday Observer yesterday.

The Minister said, Pillay had said in her statement that the country is showing signs of heading towards an increasingly authoritarian direction.

When somebody talks about an authoritarian government, one of the features of an authoritarian Government is not to hold elections. Here in Sri Lanka, we have had enough and more elections. The complaint by the Opposition is also that we have too many elections. Therefore, the people’s franchise has been exercised to the maximum.

Minister Rambukwella said at the time the UN Human Rights Commissioner made this statement, the Government was going to hold elections in the North and she did not utter a word about it. People in the North were deprived of choosing

Elections in the North was something Greek to them over the past three decades.

When the UN Human Rights chief makes such a comment, it not only comes as a surprise but also leads to serious suspicion whether she had been influenced without taking into account, what she saw for herself. Therefore, it is clear that even without touring Sri Lanka, she would have made the same remarks, the Minister said.

External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris has already made an elaborative and comprehensive statement in this regard.

The Minister has categorically said that Pillay is prejudiced and biased. Prof. Peiris has said that what we find most disturbing is the lack of fairness and balance in the substance of her report, he said.

 their leaders and their fundamental franchise for a democratic society was denied for nearly 30 years.