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UN rights body divided over SL issue-Envoy

23 Mar 2014 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lanka today claimed there was a "division" among members of the UNHRC over a US-backed resolution and termed it a victory for the country.

Sri Lankan President's Human Rights Envoy and Minister MahindaSamarasinghe, who returned to Colombo after addressing regional groups of the UN Human Rights Council, said the 47-member rights body stands divided over the resolution coming up later this month.

"We can clearly see a division among members. This itself I view as a triumph for us. This was because we could convince some of them with our progress achieved since the war ended," he said.

Samarasinghe said most of the member nations are clamped by the US pressure to vote in favour of the resolution.

"We cannot see an environment where they could make an independent decision at the UNHRC. Most countries are under political pressures".

Sri Lanka made its opposition clear, he said, as the US resolution would create a bad precedent.

"It will be another country tomorrow after Sri Lanka", Samarasinghe said.

"If this was allowed making it possible for the UN Human Rights Commissioner to set up an international inquiry, it will be carried out without any kind of fairness", he said.

The US-moved resolution is being dubbed by the government as action to try Rajapaksa in the international criminal court for alleged war crimes.

Sri Lanka is facing its third UN Human Rights Council resolution in three years, censuring the country on its lack of progress on human rights accountability and reconciliation with its Tamil minority after the civil war ended with the defeat of the LTTE in May, 2009.

Previously, two such resolutions were backed by India. (PTI)

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UN rights body divided over SL issue-Envoy

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