Report not likely at HRC

Chamikara Weerasinghe

*Report unsubstantiated, falsified, biased

*Govt ready to meet Diaspora challenge

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is unlikely to review, or hold discussions on the controversial Darusman Report during its 17th regular session in Geneva from today to June 17.

Defense Spokesman and Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella yesterday said the Government has adequately dealt with the Report and added that the Report, as unsubstantiated, falsified and biased as it is, is very unlikely to be taken for discussion at the sessions of the UNHRC.

‘However, this does not mean that pro LTTE diaspora in the West would stop its lobbying against the Sri Lankan Government,“ he pointed out.

‘It was expected that the role of the Tamil diaspora politics will be reduced to transnational political lobbying after the decimation of the LTTE,” the Minister said.

‘The Diaspora will continue to influence the United Nations, UK, US, other countries and international organizations to mobilize themselves in the light of their diminishing power and influence after the LTTE defeat.”

‘The Government is ready to meet the challenge of the Tamil Diaspora knowing their agenda well,” he said.

‘The Tamil Diaspora has been collecting funds from their foreign sympathizers in the West for decades to support the LTTE. Now they have to make efforts to hold onto their positions without the manoeuvre of the LTTE to raise funds as they used to, while having to safeguard their millions of dollars in assets, explained Rambukwella.

With the United Nations holding its Human Rights Council session today, the government will start a two-day international seminar on defeating terrorism.

The seminar titled, “Defeating Terrorism – The Sri Lanka Experience” will be held at the Galadari Hotel Colombo from May 31 to June 2 with the participation of military officers from 54 countries.

Army Commander Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya will preside.

Rambukwella said the government will share its experience on how it defeated terrorism by using the force of the military on the home ground.

Asked if the government would also share its military strategies applied in the process of defeating terrorism, he said the government will share every detail of the policies and strategies it applied in the process of defeating terrorism with any country seeking to remove the plague of terrorism from their soil.