Swamy asks US to work with Sri Lanka on resolution at UNHRC

Saturday, 9 March 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

PRI (Washington): Janata Party Chief Subramanian Swamy has asked the Obama administration to undertake bilateral consultations with Colombo to work out a consensus on the draft of the alleged human rights violations in Sri Lanka proposed to be tabled in UNHRC in Geneva.

Swamy, who met Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake, conveyed his point of view on the American move to introduce a resolution at the ongoing UN Human Rights Council session.

Noting that this is his personal initiative, Swamy, during his nearly hour long meeting with the State Department officials, cautioned the US that the resolution should not be seen as a victory of the “divisive” forces close to ‘Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’ as that could result in revival of the LTTE, which is not in the interest of anyone.

Expressing satisfaction over his meeting with the US officials, Swamy argued that any investigation into the alleged human rights violations should be taken by the democratically elected government of Sri Lanka and not by any internationally appointed bodies.

“Because Sri Lanka, being a democratic country, stands on a totally different footing from Bosnia and Zaire,” he said.

“Under no circumstances the resolution has any indication that Rajapaksa (Sri Lankan President) and others are guilty of war crimes. Whatever has to be done has to be done by the Government of Sri Lanka and not by international agencies. The demand for international agencies essentially comes from supporters of LTTE,” Swamy told a news agency after the meeting.

Swamy told US officials that there is no probability of setting up an internationally-appointed “intrusive” probe which Sri Lanka will be compelled to comply because Russia and China will veto such a move.

“Thus, no resolution not acceptable to Sri Lanka can be ever enforced in the UN framework,” he said.

“I therefore urged the US to undertake bilateral consultations with Sri Lanka to work out a consensus resolution to adopt within the framework of the proposed US draft, and based the submissions of Blake to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs recently, rather than to repeat the divisive resolution of last year, which has remained sterile and a dead letter, except for enthusing the financial legatees of the LTTE to continue to finance disinformation in the media,” Swamy said.

Based on his feedback from State Department officials, he said that US resolution is unlikely to dictate terms to Sri Lanka or call for an international agency.

“This would be big setback to the pro-LTTE forces. The emphasis would be more on reconciliation and devolution of powers,” Swamy said.