An angry Sri Lankan government lashed out at the United Nations declaring that it did not have any right to meddle with the affairs of an independent, democratically elected government, the state run, Dinamina newspaper said in its lead article on Sunday. Quoting Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, the article said, the report by the three member panel appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was one sided with obvious partiality to the LTTE.
Rambukwella said that the LTTE which was politically and militarily defeated appeared to have gained sympathy from this three member committee.
“This is a one sided report and cannot be accepted,” he said.
Rambukwella added that the voice of the defeated LTTE was very well utilized in this report whereas the voice of the democratically elected government has been sidelined.
Rambukwella further said that the Sri Lanka government was now gearing to counter this proposal and convey the facts across to the international community on this one sided report.
He added that even though there are some countries against Sri Lanka, there were many which were supporting Sri Lanka.
Political observers in Colombo said that the hostile reaction of Sri Lanka to the report is expected, looking at the damning indictment on key political and military figures including the Rajapakse family of committing war-crimes.
Seasoned ex-diplomats have advised Colombo to take a prudent approach to responding to the report, and to not confront the UN head-on.
Spokesperson for the US-based activist group Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), commented, "the silence of Sri Lanka’s intelligentia has clearly exposed their intellectual bankruptcy with the publication of the audacious report by the respected three-member veterans of humanitarian law. Sri Lanka is nervous, rightfully so, looking at the ominous future repercussions from the report."
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