UN must follow due process – SL

25 July 2012 12:24 pm

Sri Lanka said that UN system and member states, including the Human Rights Council, must follow due process and be guided by objective criteria in assessing developments in Sri Lanka.


“The UN system and member states, including the Human Rights Council, must follow due process and be guided by objective criteria in assessing developments in Sri Lanka, and not allow rump elements of the LTTE based overseas, some Tamil diaspora groups and others with vested interests, to ‘hijack’ multilateral processes to serve their narrow agendas,” Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha said.

He made this comment during a discussion with Ambassador Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Director-General, United Nations Office in Geneva, after presenting credentials accrediting him as Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva to Ambassador Tokayev on July 19.
Ambassador Aryasinha, while affirming Sri Lanka's deep commitment to the UN multilateral system, expressed his firm intention to undertake a multi-faceted dialogue with the UN and its mechanisms in Geneva, including in fields such as disarmament and intellectual property where Sri Lanka has played a prominent role, as well as in the humanitarian affairs arena where Sri Lanka's experience could provide useful insights. As Sri Lanka was committed to respectful engagement with the UN system, reciprocally there was also need on the part of all of Sri Lanka's interlocutors to appreciate the difficult tasks that had been achieved by the government over the past three years since the defeating of LTTE terrorism, a statement from the Geneva mission said quoting the ambassador Aryasinha.

Immediately prior to taking up his new assignment, Ambassador Aryasinha was Sri Lanka's Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the EU. He previously served as Deputy Chief of Mission with Ambassador rank in the Sri Lanka Embassy in Washington D.C. and in the Sri Lanka High Commission in New Delhi.