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By Dharisha Bastians
A top US Envoy who arrived in Colombo yesterday, setting the stage for Geneva’s UN Human Rights Council Session in March, has emphasised that the US has no agenda against Sri Lanka but highlighted the “growing frustration” in the international community, due to fears that the country would lose a golden opportunity following the end of the war.
During a meeting with External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris, US Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Biswal said there was “growing concern” that the country was not moving past the wounds of war which might fester and give rise to renewed conflict.
“No one in the international community wants that to happen,” Biswal said, according to a statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs in Colombo.
The visiting high official said the USA has no agenda against Sri Lanka, but it is compelled to take up certain issues due to the values upon which the USA has been founded upon. “She added that the USA has called for a Sri Lankan process to address the issues highlighted. However, there is concern that the space provided is not being adequately used by Sri Lanka,” the Ministry said.
Minister Peiris told the US official that there was a very strong perception of a lack of objectivity and impartiality on the part of the US, and a woefully inadequate acknowledgement of the developments that have taken place. The Minister said that the relentless pursuit of Sri Lanka through the Human Rights Council will lead to the polarisation of communities in Sri Lanka which would negatively impact reconciliation.
“This US action against Sri Lanka has further strengthened the hardlin
ers” the Minister said.
The Minister also raised the Tweet by the US Embassy in Colombo during the visit of US Ambassador at Large for global criminal justice, Stephen Rapp, of the St. Anthony’s Ground in the north, saying it was an example of how unsubstantiated assertions can have a snowball effect and is seized upon due to the general perception among Sri Lankan society that the US is unfairly targeting Sri Lanka;
“There is an imbalance in the focus on Sri Lanka in the Human Rights Council; Sri Lanka has become a soft target,” the Minister said.
He advised on the need for the US to be balanced in their approach in order to be fully functional.
The Assistant Secretary of State who assumed office late last year as the Obama administration’s key focal point on South and Central Asian affairs, met with External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris yesterday. Her meetings in Colombo included discussions with Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Ministers Basil Rajapaksa and Rauff Hakeem and the Northern Governor.
Biswal travels to the Northern Province today for talks with Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran in Jaffna. The issue of Tamil land rights, resettlement, disappearances and the functioning of the TNA led provincial council following last year’s historic election are expected to feature in the discussion. Biswal’s visit to the north comes in the same week that the NPC adopted a controversial resolution in the Council calling for an international war crimes inquiry into the final phase of the war.
The US Assistant Secretary who will travel to London for talks with British officials on 3 February after her Sri Lanka visit, amid assurances that the UK will co sponsor a resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council. She is then scheduled to visit Geneva, the US State Department said.
The US State Department said Biswal will also travel to Geneva, for meetings regarding the US intention to sponsor the resolution on Sri Lanka in the March session of the UN Human Rights Council.
Following two resolutions sponsored by Washington in 2012 and 2013, signs are imminent that the US will build a stronger resolution at the UNHRC this March that may set the stage for an international inquiry into allegations about the last phase of the war in Sri Lanka, if it can garner support from the wider membership of the Council.
