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Thursday, January 9, 2014

Lanka ready to face resolution at the UNHRC

KeheliyaThe Government says it is ready to face any resolution the US presents on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council in March this year.
Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said that the Government is aware the US is in the process of gathering information on Sri Lanka and how such information is being collected.

He said the Government has made preparations diplomatically to face any resolution the US submits to the Council.

“Win or lose we must face it. We had won once at the UNHRC and we lost once as well,” he said.

However he said the Government was ready to face the challenge as it has a responsibility towards the Sri Lankan public and no one else.

The Minister also noted that when Sri Lanka lost the last vote when a resolution was submitted at the UNHRC there were some 30 countries which had voted for Sri Lanka and so it was not a complete loss.

The United States will be submitting a new resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva in March, a US official had said yesterday.

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran said that the visiting US Ambassador-at-Large at the Office of Global Criminal Justice, Stephen J. Rapp had mentioned this when he met a TNA delegation in Colombo.

Sumanthiran said that the resolution will push for an independent international investigation into war crimes in Sri Lanka. (Colombo Gazette)