Govt. has given a walkover in Geneva: Kiriella

The Government has virtually offered the international community a walkover at the UN Human Rights Council’s 22nd Session in Geneva by deciding not to send a single Government Minister to face a second US-backed resolution this year, UNP Senior Vice President and Parliamentarian Lakshman Kiriella said yesterday.

Claiming that the Government’s foreign policy had been a disaster, the UNP MP said that Government Ministers had been travelling to Geneva for several years now, giving the Council various false promises and commitments that were never lived up to.

“Ministers have lost so much credibility that they can no longer face the Council in Geneva,” Kiriella charged, adding that officials cannot make policy decisions, making Sri Lanka’s case at the UNHRC even tougher than last year. “Effectively the Government has virtually abandoned Sri Lanka in Geneva because it has failed to live up to any of its promises,” the UNP MP said.

Kiriella said that the Government’s reckless domestic agendas and bungling of its foreign relations had lost Sri Lanka support at the UN and with the EU and now it has also fallen foul of the Commonwealth, following the impeachment that was proceeded with in violation of Latimer House Principles.

“These are called resolutions against Sri Lanka – but they are really resolutions against an inefficient Government. In the end, it is the country that is disgraced internationally,” he charged.

(DB)