External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said India was committed to the protection of the rights of the Sri Lankan Tamils, the Hindu reported.
“The anguish with which the members have raised the issue [of crimes committed during the war of 2009], the government associates itself with the same pain,” Ms Swaraj said.
“Our aim is to protect the interests of Tamils in Sri Lanka. You can achieve this through two means: by either doing it forcefully or through persuasion with the friendly country,” she said answering a question from D. Raja of the Communist Party of India (CPI).
The Minister’s comments came in the backdrop of the 34th Session of the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC), where the report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (HCHR) on Sri Lanka was presented.
The report assessed the progress made in the implementation of UNHRC resolution 30/1, on human rights and reconciliation between October 2015 and January 2017, and suggested that more efforts were needed for the improvement of the human rights situation of Sri Lanka.
The HRC’s session is coming to an end on Friday and, despite criticism of Colombo’s human rights record, the resolution is expected to get another extension.
A British national had been arrested over attempting to smuggle in the largest haul of kush( drugs) from Thailand, customs said.
Popular grade five tuition teacher, Hayeshika Fernando wanted over assaulting a 21 year old youth was granted bail today after she surrendered to courts.
The Government of Sri Lanka maintains that the allegation of genocide during the final phase of the conflict in Sri Lanka is unsubstantiated by any credible authority, either nationally or internationally, and is based on misleading information. Sri Lanka firmly rejects this false narrative and believes it has been propagated primarily for electoral gains within Canada.
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