Sri Lanka on Sunday said it was ready to probe the allegations raised by U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay that some people she met during her mission to probe alleged war crimes committed during the ethnic conflict with the Tamil Tigers had been threatened.<\/p>\n
Ms. Pillay\u2019s office must provide evidence to prove the allegations in order to investigate it, said government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella.<\/p>\n
Mr. Rambukwella, also the Minister of Information, told the\u00a0Colombo Gazette<\/i>\u00a0that some groups may attempt to discredit the government by either threatening those who spoke to her or making false claims to that effect.<\/p>\n
The minister also said the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights was given the freedom to travel and meet anyone she wanted and that opportunity may have been used by those who wanted to meet her and pass false information.<\/p>\n
Ms. Pillay on Saturday said she had received reports that people in villages and settlements in the Mullaitivu area were visited by police or military officers both before and after she arrived in Trincomalee last week, several people she met were subsequently questioned about the content of her conversation with them.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the government downplayed any negative impact from the visit of Ms. Pillay.<\/p>\n
Ms. Pillay on Saturday said unless Sri Lanka puts in place a credible investigation into alleged high number of disappearances and murders during the armed conflict \u201ccalls for an international inquiry are likely to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Rambukwella said Sri Lanka as a sovereign state was within its right to decide on issues. \u201cWe have implemented most of the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission. So we have nothing to hide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Champika Ranawaka, the Minister of Research who is from the nationalist Heritage Party (JHU), said Sri Lanka shouldn\u2019t fear any international adverse action due to a report at the UN rights body by Ms. Pillay later this month.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is nothing that so called powers can do. The US is indebted to China so no longer they are powerful to do us anything,\u201d Mr. Ranawaka said.<\/p>\n
Ms. Pillay said she would be orally reporting to the UNHRC and in the process warned that Sri Lanka was \u201cheading in an increasing authoritarian direction\u201d. She said despite the end to the armed conflict four years ago the democracy has been undermined and the rule of law eroded.<\/p>\n
Criticising Ms. Pillay, Youth Affairs Minister Dullas Alahapperuma said, \u201cThe war (with the LTTE) lasted over 7500 days. She came for a 5 day visit to assess everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sri Lanka ran a campaign of public castigation of the UN Rights Chief for her Tamil affinity albeit of South African origin.<\/p>\n
She was accused of favouring the LTTE and working to target Sri Lanka on the dictates of the pro-LTTE diaspora.<\/p>\n
(Source: IANS)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sri Lanka on Sunday said it was ready to probe the allegations raised by U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay that some people she met during her mission to probe alleged war crimes committed during the ethnic conflict with the Tamil Tigers had been threatened. Ms. Pillay\u2019s office must provide evidence to prove the allegations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[25996,25995,4846,25998,47776,25907,47765,25993,25997,25994,47774,47775,23371],"class_list":["post-30003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-law-news","tag-eelam-war-iv","tag-human-rights-violation","tag-ltte","tag-ltte-war-crimes","tag-national-news","tag-navi-pillay","tag-news","tag-sri-lanka-ethnic-conflict","tag-sri-lanka-war-crimes","tag-sri-lankan-tamils","tag-todays-news","tag-todays-top-news","tag-top-news"],"yoast_head":"\n