Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa today accused his political rivals of carrying out a smear campaign to undermine his government internationally.
"There are groups who falsely claim harassment of individuals. They provide false details of attacks to create trouble for us internationally," Rajapaksa told a gathering in the northwestern district of Kurunegala.
The President's remark was a apparent reference to claims by Muslim political parties about attacks on the minority community allegedly by extremist groups.
He said the opposition saw only the bad side of his development drive in the infrastructure sector.
"When we build roads they say we have made commissions out of the construction. These are tactics to topple the government. But the public won't be misled," he said.
Rajapaksa also accused the world community of conspiring against his government at the behest of the pro-LTTE diaspora.
He asked the public not to be misled by these "conspiracies".
The government is currently lobbying friendly nations against a move by the US to introduce a resolution at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva against Sri Lanka over alleged rights abuses during the war with the LTTE.
Similar resolutions in 2012 and 2013 asked Sri Lanka to achieve national reconciliation with the Tamil minority and to establish a mechanism to probe alleged war crimes by troops during the last phase of the battle with the Tamil Tigers.
