The Sri Lankan government has rejected a UN Human Rights report, which cites “continuing reports of extrajudicial killings, abductions and enforced disappearance”.
Sri Lankan External Affairs Minister Professor G. L. Peiris says the UN Human Rights report was “not the product of an open mind”.
The report was launched by Navi Pillay, UN Commissioner for Human Rights, after a week-long visit to the country. She told reporters that, although she was allowed to go wherever she wanted, Sri Lankans who spoke to her were intimidated by the country’s security forces. But Peiris conducted a point-by-point rebuttal of her report, saying that it was biased with no empirical evidence to back its accusations.
“What we find disturbing is the tone and substance of her report, the lack of fairness and balance,” a government statement said.
The report, mandated by the Geneva Resolution in March, says that while Sri Lanka’s government has made “significant progress in rebuilding infrastructure”, considerable work must be made “in the areas of justice, reconciliation and resumption of livelihoods” of internally displaced persons.
