Monday Oct 07, 2024
Monday Oct 07, 2024
Wednesday, 4 September 2013 00:20 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Addressing media and researchers at the Sri Lanka High Commission in London on Monday night, Minister Peiris made a point-by-point rebuttal of what his Ministry called the “major assertions and conjectures” in Pillay’s departing report on Sri Lanka.
“The report she has just produced is indicative of a prejudiced mind and in no way shows the fairness and open-mindedness of an official undertaking such a mission,” Peiris charged.
The Minister said that even where Navi Pillay acknowledges progress and positive developments, it is given so grudgingly and belatedly.
“What we find disturbing is the tone and substance of her report, the lack of fairness and balance,” he said.
The Minister also hit back hard at Pillay’s parting remark that Sri Lanka was heading in an increasingly authoritarian direction, saying she had no empirical evidence to support the claim.
“On the contrary, after 25 years the people of the north who lived under the LTTE had no suffrage. But now President Rajapaksa’s Government has provided them with the opportunity of expressing themselves later this month,” the External Affairs Minister said.
He said that during those 25 years the people of the rest of the country had elected four governments and had four presidents. “Almost every six months some election is being held in the country, allowing the people to express themselves,” Minister Peiris.
The Minister said that at every election in recent years, President Rajapaksa’s Government has been increasingly endorsed by the public, showing their confidence in the Government.
“But strangely enough, the Human Rights Commissioner has ignored all this evidence before her and touted the claim that Sri Lanka was moving towards authoritarianism – this rejection of empirical evidence was further proof of her bias and prejudice,” the Minister claimed.
The Minister said that he was not criticising the Human Rights Commissioner out of rancour but of deep sadness as he found that her report lacked the fairness, open-mindedness and balance that was expected of her.
Several journalists from the print and electronic media, news agencies and think tanks in the UK attended the briefing, which was moderated by Sri Lankan High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Dr. Chris Nonis. Prof. Peiris was in London to deliver the keynote address at a Cambridge symposium on economic crime.
