Minister alleges bid to destabilise Lanka on rights abuses

Allegations of rights abuses during the war against the LTTE are being levelled against Sri Lanka to create internal strife as was the case in Iraq and Libya, External Affairs Minister G L Peiris said today.
"They know that President (Mahinda) Rajapaksa can never be electorally defeated because he has won the confidence of the public. So they try to use different tactics," Peiris told a political gathering in the southern district of Hambantota.
"They use human rights as a tool to create problems for Sri Lanka. We are being pursued every year at the UNHRC," he said.
Without naming any country, he said certain nations want to create internal unrest in Sri Lanka like in Iraq and Libya. "The motives in Iraq and Libya were to usurp the natural resources of those countries," he alleged.

"We now see at least 25 people killed daily in Iraq. They want the same situation to prevail in Sri Lanka," he said.
Peiris' comments came even as the government was engaged in hectic lobbying ahead of the UN Human Rights Council session next month in Geneva where Sri Lanka is set to face a third resolution since 2012 on alleged rights abuses.
The resolution - widely expected to build on two previous ones - is expected to call for concrete steps to achieve national reconciliation with minority Tamils and accountability for alleged human rights abuses.