President’s Office claims TNA’s protest deliberate conspiracy ahead of UNHRC

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians staging a protest outside the Presidential Secretariat yesterday, was a deliberate conspiracy effort to depict a wrong image about Sri Lanka ahead of the 49th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, the President’s Media Division (PMD) claimed.

“Although the TNA members mentioned that they have come to meet the President to hand over a letter, they have not given any advance notice to meet the President yesterday,” PMD explained issuing a statement.

PMD claimed that it was a clear deliberate conspiracy to portray a wrong image about the Government at the UNHRC in Geneva, by coming to his office without a prior appointment and staging a protest when the President was not in office. 

The 49th session of the UNHRC is scheduled to be held on 28 February in Geneva, Switzerland and the session will conclude on 1 April. The Foreign Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris will lead the Sri Lankan delegation and will present a documented update to the Council. An interactive dialogue on Sri Lanka is scheduled for 13 March. 

As per the PMD, the President had left for a previously scheduled program yesterday morning. “The TNA MPs were given an appointment to meet the Prime Minister, but they have not attended that meeting and were protesting outside the Presidential Secretariat,” the PMD said.