24 March 2021 07:23 pm
While claiming that the Government should take responsibility for the defeat at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna said today the Government’s weak domestic political policy had resulted in the defeat.
JVP National Organiser Bimal Ratnayake told a news conference that the country can be protected from foreign forces only by adopting a correct foreign policy.
“Even the people who voted this Government admit that there has been a drawback in all the sectors such as democracy, human rights and economy under the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government. The defeat at the UNHCR proves that President Rajapaksa was unable to protect this country,” he said.
Mr. Ratnayake also said it was a worse scenario for the government leaders including the Foreign Minister to have claimed after the defeat that they were not ready to admit the mistakes and added that the Government would never be able to rectify its mistakes and win at the UNHRC.
“It is the policies of the Rajapaksa Government that have been defeated at the UNHRC. No resolution that directly affects the Sri Lankan State or the people has been adopted at the UNHRC. If this was a resolution against the country, Buddhist monks who used to stage protests on these matters would have staged protests,” he said.
Mr. Ratnayake said a considerable number of countries out of the 11 countries that voted in favour of Sri Lanka have leftist basis and they voted not because of the progress of the human rights in Sri Lanka but they were against the countries such as Britain who sponsored the resolution.
“There is no use of accusing the countries that voted against us. It is the failure of the Government for not being able to obtain the votes of countries such as Nepal and Indonesia that supported us earlier,” he said.
He said the Government can win at the UNHRC with a majority of countries if the Sri Lankan government acted to uphold human rights and independence of the judiciary.
“The Government has betrayed the country for its vicious and dictatorial power. People of this country or anyone else should not be responsible for the black mark due to the defeat. It is the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government that should be responsible for putting the country into a situation where we failed to obtain the votes of other countries on behalf of our country,” he said and added that “Even now we should admit our mistakes without being conceited. We urge the Government to respect human rights, abolish 20th Amendment to the Constitution, stop militarisation, and we are to win at the UNHRC next time."(Ajith Siriwardana)