Sri Lanka remains steadfast ahead of UN human rights resolution

COLOMBO, March 21 (Xinhua) -- As the UN Human Rights Council is ready to vote on a resolution on Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankan the government on Thursday insisted it would remain steadfast and emphasized the move would undermine postwar reconciliation in the country, an official said here.

As members of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) gathered in Geneva to debate and pass a second U.S. backed resolution on Sri Lanka calling for deeper implementation of human rights, Sri Lankan government spokesman and Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella noted "whatever outcome we will stand."

"This is not going to be the end of the road neither is it going to be a disaster as some people expects. We are quite strong and we feel that we can meet any situation," he said.

Speaking to media Rambukwella reiterated that the Sri Lankan government has worked hard in the last four years to promote minority rights, resettled over 200,000 people and demined large tracts of land.

"We have made our position very clear through the entire process and we believe that the U.S. resolution is undermining the efforts made by the Sri Lankan government in good faith. So we have requested the rest of the world who are the other participants to look at it in that line."

He insisted that the key accountability report presented by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) appointed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa was being implemented with nearly "50 percent of recommendations being implemented."

"It is up to them to look at it that way because we feel that the LLRC, as we have repeatedly stated, we have done 50 percent of it and it's not something that we can complete overnight because certain recommendations of the LLRC require even parliamentary approvals. So therefore you need to space it out. As far as we are concerned we are happy and there are many other countries that are also happy with our performance."

The United States has tabled a diluted resolution that calls for future monitoring of Sri Lanka's human rights situation but does not expressly call for international probes into allegations of war crimes as it did in 2012.

However, the Sri Lankan government is not out of the woods yet as it could end up on the agenda of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) that could suspend it from the Commonwealth and prevent it from hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in November.

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