SL upset with Mauritius over rights resolution

Sri Lanka Thursday expressed concern that Mauritius, set to join a trilateral maritime security group also involving India and the Maldives, is co-sponsoring a UN resolution alleging human rights abuses during the war against the Tamil Tigers.

“Sri Lanka expressed concern that Mauritius had co-sponsored the resolution” at the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva this month, National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon told the media.

“Sri Lanka mentioned that we need to build trust (among neighbours),” Menon said after chairing in New Delhi the third NSA-level Trilateral Meeting on Maritime Security Cooperation.

Mauritius and the Seychelles attended the meeting as observers and are likely to join the grouping as full members.

Menon also sought to play down a question on whether tensions between New Delhi and Colombo over the arrests of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy and issues relating to the rehabilitation of Tamils in the island’s northeast would impact the grouping.

“The politics … goes on. Politics doesn’t mean that ships stop moving,” Menon said.(IANS)