11 March 2010 11:17 am
The Non Aligned Movement (NAM) has expressed concerns over moves by UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon to appoint a panel of experts to advice on accountability issues on Sri Lanka.
The Chair of the NAM Coordinating Bureau in New York, in a letter to the UN Chief, has said that the appointment comes without taking into consideration the domestic situation in Sri Lanka and without consulting the government of Sri Lanka.
NAM recalls that President Rajapaksa has already confirmed in public his intention to appoint a domestic mechanism to address accountability issues voluntarily and that the UN has no mandate to intervene in domestic matters of a State.
“The Non Aligned Movement strongly condemns selective targeting of individual countries which it deems contrary to the founding principles of the movement and the United Nations Charter,” the NAM Coordinating Bureau said.
NAM says the move by the UN Chief could do more harm than good to the country’s ongoing and relentless efforts aimed at reinforcing reconciliation and national unity and as such Sri Lanka should be given room to complete its domestic process. (Daily Mirror online)