(COLOMBO) – Sri Lanka’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry assured that Sri Lanka will not accept any resolutions brought forward by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) regarding alleged human rights violations during the civil conflict that ended in 2009.
He told the media on Wednesday that Western countries should not base their foreign policies towards Sri Lanka on vote-bank politics, aimed at securing the votes of the Sri Lankan Diaspora residing in their nations.
The Minister said: “In 2022, the UNHRC brought a resolution against Sri Lanka, and they have submitted a report on that resolution for September this year. We have rejected that resolution. As the period for the current resolution is ending, they would need to introduce a new resolution to continue it. We intend to respond accordingly”
“However, it is important to state that we do not accept the UNHRC’s approach”, he added.
“Specifically, we completely disagree with the proposal to initiate a court case in a foreign country, as mentioned in the resolution. This is against our sovereignty and the sovereignty of our legal system. Our judiciary will not allow such interference,” he said.
Commenting further, Ali Sabry highlighted that “What we are telling these foreign powers is that we have implemented internal measures to find solutions to the conflict that ended 15 years ago. That is our process. We do not appreciate external forces attempting to create divisions within our communities. “
“The motivation behind this interference seems to be driven by electoral considerations in Western countries where Sri Lankan Diasporas are part of the electorate. This is what we call vote-bank politics, and we reject the idea that these countries’ foreign policies towards Sri Lanka should be influenced by such considerations”, the Minister assured.
Furthermore, the Minister said: “What does the Human Rights Council know about the economy? We are dealing with the IMF, World Bank, U.S. Treasury, and Japanese Foreign Ministry, who are experts on economic matters.”
