UNHRC resolution: President blasts those who bypassed him

President Maithripala Sirisena dropped a bombshell when he addressed a public meeting on Wednesday after declaring open a new building for the Meegahatenna Po l i c e Station in the Kalutara District.

He said that he did not recognise the Sri Lanka resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights Council ( UNHRC) last week in Geneva. He has publicly declared that troops did not commit war crimes and it was the Tiger guerrillas who did so.

He said that this resolution, which was co- sponsored by Sri Lanka for a second time, had been worked out without his knowledge and that of the Foreign Ministry. Yet, a joint UNFSLFP delegation sent by President Sirisena that was in Geneva did not oppose it and the resolution was carried unanimously. The President revealed that he had not given his consent for co-sponsoring either the 2015 resolution (30/1) or the one passed last week. The latest resolution, moved by a core group including the United Kingdom, Canada, North Macedonia and Montenegro, was co- sponsored by Sri Lanka without his approval, he said. It pledged to implement remaining provisions of resolution 30/ 1, including the setting up of hybrid courts to try alleged war crimes by troops and Tiger guerrillas.

The President told the public meeting that it was Mano Tittawala, Secretary General of the Secretariat Co -ordinating Reconciliation Mechanisms ( SCRM), and Advisor to the Finance Ministry, who had written to Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative at the UN in Geneva to co- sponsor the second resolution. It had been on the g rounds t hat Prime Minister Ranil Wi ckremesinghe had agreed to it.

President Sirisena bitterly criticised those responsible for the co- sponsorship saying it was done behind his back.