Sri Lanka protests envoy’s remark

Colombo says it doesn’t wish to be dictated to by the international community on internal affairs

In this February 1, 2014 photo, U.S. Assistant Secretry of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Nisha Biswal speaks during media briefing in Colombo. Ms. Biswal expressed her concerns to the government officials about the insufficient progress in addressing post-war reconciliation process.

A day after United States envoy Nisha Desai Biswal warned Sri Lanka about its “frustrating” pace of reconciliation, the Sri Lankan government said the U.S. had a desire to believe the worst of Sri Lanka, to justify punitive action against the country.

In a statement released by the External Affairs Ministry here on Sunday, the Sri Lankan government observed that Ms. Biswal’s claims pertaining to the pace of implementation of the LLRC [Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission], allegations of religious intolerance or insufficient progress in addressing reconciliation and accountability, were unsubstantiated.

“Preposterous”

Ministry spokesperson Rodney M. Perera said: “They have been as preposterous as a visiting U.S. official’s statement of being convinced of a figure of 40,000 missing persons based on a purported census of 2008 carried out by a civil society institution.”