Sri Lanka bullied by West, says defence official

COLOMBO, June 12 (Reuters) Sri Lanka is being bullied by Western countries over human rights, the island's defence secretary said today, declaring Tamil Tiger rebels have infiltrated and misled United Nations agencies.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, President Mahinda Rajapaksa's brother, accused foreign powers of applying double standards when it comes to human rights violations, saying all measures were fair to defeat ''terrorists''.

Rajapaksa's comments came after authorities evicted hundreds of minority ethnic Tamils from the capital last week citing security concerns, a move that drew wide criticism.

''This is discrimination and bullying by the international community,'' Rajapaksa told Reuters and the BBC in an interview from his heavily-guarded office in the capital Colombo.

''Without understanding the problem, they are trying to bully us, and we won't be isolated. We have all the SAARC countries, the Asian countries,'' he added. ''Britain or Western countries, EU countries, they can do whatever. We don't depend on them.'' Both Britain and the United States have suspended some aid to Sri Lanka this year citing rights abuse concerns, and the World Food Programme slapped conditions on food aid to avoid war refugees being resettled against their will.

In the face of international criticism, the government on Sunday said it regretted the eviction of Tamil civilians from the capital and vowed it would not happen again.

''It is a good example where the whole world was misled,'' Rajapaksa said. ''Everyone knows the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) is infiltrating ... We can't arrest 300 people and detain them.

What is the best option? ''So you can tell them, if you don't have any legal business in Colombo ... we don't want to detain you, you go back to your homes. In fact this operation was much better. We could have put all of them in detention.'' ANYTHING GOES? Suspected Tigers have launched a series of deadly attacks in recent months that have killed hundreds of people amid a new chapter in the island's two-decade civil war.

Rights groups, Nordic truce monitors and a UN envoy have accused state security forces for repeated abuses, including killings and abductions, which the government says is an effort to tarnish its image.

''We have to defend ourselves. You can't risk the country ...,'' Rajapaksa said. ''I'm talking about terrorists. Anything is fair.

''When the US does operations, they say covert operations.

When something is (done) in Sri Lanka, they call it abductions,'' he added. ''This is playing with the words.'' Rajapaksa said British Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells, who visited the island yesterday, had been ''completely misinformed''.

''Howells didn't talk a single word against the LTTE, a single word against terrorism,'' Rajapaksa said. ''They are threatening isolation, they are stopping aid.

''They want us to suffer,'' he added. ''When America is attacked ... every country (calls it) war against terrorism, but why are the terrorists being treated in a different way in Sri Lanka? Is Britain talking about isolating America?'' Rajapaksa also said UN agencies in Sri Lanka, which have also urged the government to halt rights abuses, had been misled by local staff.

''For 30 years or so, this LTTE planned this, they infiltrated the U.N.,'' Rajapaksa said. ''The problem is the UN organisations, they took a lot of locals (on).'' The United Nations said the claim was groundless, and voiced concern such comments might expose humanitarian workers to increased risk given the number of aid workers killed in recent years.

REUTERS RKM KP1855