Sri Lanka slams U.S. after vote on resolution

Xinhua News Agency

English.news.cn   2014-03-28 05:56:35

COLOMBO, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan Government on Thursday slammed the United States over a draft resolution which was adopted at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

China, Russia and Pakistan were among the countries which voted against the resolution that calls for an international investigations into alleged human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.

External Affairs Minister, Professor G.L Peiris said that the US exerted pressure on some countries for them to back the resolution, including by warning that failure to back the resolution will hurt ties with those countries.

"Some countries had no choice but to back the resolution. They could not reject US threats as some countries have strong economic ties with the US," he said.

He said that even Sri Lanka had refused to submit to pressure to accept the resolution and he asserted that there was a need to stand up to pressure from powerful countries.

"The fact is some of these people want to see a political change in Sri Lanka. What cannot be done internally through elections they are trying to do internationally," he said.

The minister also hailed those who rejected the resolution, including India, saying that the decision taken by India was significant.

Over the past two years, India had voted in favor of US resolutions on Sri Lanka submitted to the UN Human Rights Council, but on Thursday India abstained on the basis that the new resolution had some shortcomings.

The resolution on Sri Lanka submitted to the UN Human Rights Council was passed by a majority vote with 23 countries of the 47 member council voting for and 12 against it while 12 abstained.

Peiris said the Sri Lankan government will continue with its domestic process to address human rights related issues and not agree to an international process.