Sri Lanka Upset By U.N. Treatment

By Will Davies-August 30, 2013,

Eranga Jayawardena/Associated Press

Sri Lankan police officers stood guard during a protest the U.N. office in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Aug. 26

The Sri Lankan government said it has received unfair treatment from the United Nations Human Rights Council as the head of the group neared the end of a weeklong official visit to the country.

“There is a perception in the country about the lack of objectivity and fairness in the treatment meted out to Sri Lanka,” Minister of External Affairs G.L. Peiris told Navanethem Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, according to a statement on the MEA’s website.

“The minister added that Sri Lanka accepts constructive and justified criticism but resents vicious and baseless positions which are incessantly repeated,” the statement said.

In March, the Human Rights Council passed a resolution calling for Sri Lanka to conduct an investigation into allegations of human rights violations by government forces during its civil war. The U.S. and India were among the 25 countries to vote in favor of the resolution, while 13 countries, including Pakistan, voted against it. There were eight abstentions.

A U.N. panel in 2011 said that more than 40,000 people, mainly civilians from the island nation’s ethnic Tamil minority, were killed in the final stages of the near three-decade war, which ended in 2009 after Sri Lankan troops defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist group also known as the Tamil Tigers.

In a report published in December 2011, the Sri Lankan government largely exonerated its forces from blame for atrocities, including allegations the army shelled schools and hospitals. In February, New York-based Human Rights Watch issued a report that said there was widespread rape of men and women in custody during the war. It added that politically motivated sexual violence by the military and police continues.

In its statement Thursday, the MEA said allegations against the government, including claims that it starved people in the north during the conflict, were “without basis.”

“With regard to High Commissioner Pillay’s reference to the last days of the armed conflict, Prof. Peiris stated that the Sri Lanka military was involved in the largest hostage rescue operation in contemporary history,” the statement said.

“It is factually known that the LTTE ruthlessly annihilated people trying to escape from their clutches,” it added.

The MEA said Mr. Peiris spoke with Ms. Pillay about post-conflict development, including steps taken to channel resources to the north of the country where the government claims the growth rate is 27%, compared with the national growth of 7%. It didn’t provide a timeframe for these growth statistics.

He also said all “High Security Zones,” apart from one in the northern town of Palaly, have been dismantled and troops relocated to military cantonments and bases, while a program has been launched on private land disputes with the aim of resolving them within two years.

Ms. Pillay is due to meet Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday and will hold a conference in Colombo on Saturday. She arrived in Sri Lanka on Aug. 25 and earlier this week visited the scene of the final battle between government troops and the Tamil Tigers. There, she reportedly told survivors and relatives of people who disappeared that she will raise their complaints with government officials in Colombo.

Follow Will and India Real Time on Twitter @WillMHDavies and @WSJIndia.