Lanka rejects Indian proposal to amend UNHRC resolution

Colombo, Mar 30: More than a week after the UN's top rights body censured it for alleged war crimes in the conflict with LTTE, Sri Lanka today said it had turned down a request by India and the US to amend the American-sponsored resolution against it at the Geneva-based Human Rights Council.

"We took a clear stand that we will not agree to this and we will express our opposition to it," Foreign Minister G L Peiris told Parliament.

On March 22, the 47-member UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) had adopted a resolution censuring Sri Lanka for alleged rights violations during the war against LTTE. A total of 24 countries, including India, had voted for the resolution and 15 against it, while eight nations abstained.

Sources had said India decided to vote after persuading the resolution-sponsor to make two changes in the draft so that it became "non-intrusive" and contributed to political reconciliation process in the island.

"We were asked on several occasions by US, India and other countries if we were agreeable to present the resolution in an amended form. We said no because we could not agree to a betrayal of the country," Peiris, who was present at the UNHRC in Geneva during the vote, said today. He stressed that the resolution adopted in Geneva "would not change anything".

PTI