Lanka plays diplomatic truant on Palestine vote

The Sri Lankan delegates made themselves absent when the UN General Assembly took up for voting a resolution calling for an end to Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip last week. The Foreign Ministry in Colombo confirmed that the delegates were absent, but declined to give reasons.

“However Sri Lanka quite understands the Palestine issue and its position on it has not changed,” the spokesman said without elaborating. The Sunday Times learns that the Sri Lankan delegates were present during the sessions but when the resolution was put to vote, they were absent.

The resolution was passed on November 17 by a vote of 156 to seven, with six abstentions. The US, Israel and Australia voted against the document which was fully backed by the 118-member Non-Aligned Movement. All the European Union members also supported it after last-minute changes were made to soften the tone of the resolution. The Arab League had asked for the session after the US vetoed a similar UN Security Council resolution against Israel’s actions. It was the second US veto on the matter this year.

The resolution deeply deplores the Israeli offensive, launched after the capture of an Israeli soldier in June and calls on Israel to immediately halt its operation and pull its troops from the Gaza Strip. The Sri Lankan decision for its delegates to be absent at the time of the voting came two days ahead of the Co-Chairs meeting in Washington. The US is among the members of the Co-Chairs.
The decision for the delegates to be absent at the time of the voting comes despite President Mahinda Rajapaksa being a one-time President of the Sri Lanka-Palestine Solidarity Movement.

Meanwhile, the JVP yesterday criticized the government for adopting a pro-American foreign policy in recent months. JVP MP Vijitha Herath who is the party’s International Affairs spokesman, told Parliament yesterday that in recent months, Sri Lanka had voted in favour of two UN resolutions that side with the US. Mr. Herath said that one such resolution sponsored by the US condemned Human Rights situation in Cuba and the other was Sri Lanka’s vote in favour of Gautamala which was pitted against Venezuela for UN Security Council seat.

“Instead of joining the small but significant tide of countries that are rising against the role of the US as the world policeman, we are giving into them,” he said. Foreign Minister Managala Samarweera intervened to say that the US was a friend of Sri Lanka and helping the country to fight terrorism.