PM condemns US blacklisting Army Commander; Govt to withdraw UN Resolution 30/1

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa today condemned move by United States government to blacklist Army Commander Lieutenant Gen Shavendra Silva and his family over human rights violations and declared that government would withdraw from United Nations (UN) Resolution 30/1 which was adopted by previous government in 2015 on strengthening reconciliation and accountability.  

“Our Government has already conveyed our displeasure in this regard to the government of the United States in the strongest possible terms,” he said. 

Issuing a statement today, Premier Rajapaksa said that the the United States of America has prohibited the Commander of the Sri Lanka Army Lt. Gen. Shavendra Silva and members of his family from entering that country.

“Even though we are now in the 21st Century, even members of his family who have not been accused of any wrongdoing have been subjected to a collective punishment reminiscent of the practice in medieval Europe. The people should be the judge of how fair this is. Even though this collective punishment has been meted out on the grounds that the Army Commander had committed violations of human rights, no one knows what these allegations are,” he said.

He said that it is because of the historic betrayal committed by the “yahapalana Government” formed by the United National Party, the Tamil National Alliance and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) in co-sponsoring UN Human Rights Council Resolution 30/1 in 2015 that other countries are able to name members of our armed forces as violators of human rights.

The first operative paragraph of that Resolution had taken note ‘with appreciation’ the September 2015 Report of the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights which accused the Sri Lankan armed forces of human rights violations. This report was based on the previous 2011 unofficial report prepared by a three member committee appointed by the then UN Secretary General outside the established procedure of that organisation. In this manner, the UNP-TNA-JVP combine ended up accepting all the unfounded allegations made against our armed forces by various interested parties,”