Former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa yesterday said it was the weakness of the government to keep thrusting itself upon the UNHRC Resolution on Sri Lanka when the US, which co-sponsored the resolution, had detached itself from it.

Mr. Rajapaksa said the government should utilize the opportunities in the international arena especially the change of administration in the US.

With the election of President Donald Trump, officials who were interested in Sri Lanka such as Nisha Biswal and Samantha Power were removed. The US has clearly shown that it is not interested in the resolution but it’s our government which keeps pushing on it. This is a weakness of our government and the Foreign Ministry,” he told an event held at Sri Sambuddhathwa Jayanthi Mandiraya in Colombo to launch a report compiled against the UNHRC resolution on the country.

The report titled ‘In defence of the armed forces-A Factual Appraisal of the OISL Report: Rebuttal to the Allegations Against the Armed Forces’ was compiled by a team of lawyers headed by Darshan Weerasekara at the invitation of the Federation of the National Organisations headed by Ven. Bengamuwe Nalaka Thera and the sponsorship of the Global Sri Lanka Collective.

Mr. Rajapaksa said the Prime Minister of Britain had recently said they won’t take any action against their armed forces personnel. How do countries preach to us on our internal matters? Those who committed war crimes had become human rights champions today,” he said.

He said there were LTTErs in the Tamil National Alliance and that they should take responsibility for their war crimes.

Meanwhile, Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekara said he would fly to Geneva on Monday night to submit the compiled report to the ongoing 34th regular session of the Human Rights Council.

We have requested for a slot at the session through a NGO based on a Temple in London and expect to submit the report around March 20,” he told the Daily Mirror.

At the event, a public proposal was seconded by the people in order to submit to President Maithripala Sirisena requesting him to reject the UNHRC resolution and to make a request to UN Chief to instruct UNGRC Chief to do away with the resolution on Sri Lanka.

Former Army Commander Daya Ratnayake, Major General Kamal Gunaratne, G. A. Chandrasiri, Rear Admiral Mohan Wijewickrama and Rear Admiral Ananda Peiris also attended the event.

Caption: The report being presented to Mr. Rajapaksa by Gunadasa Amarasekara of the Federation of the National Organisations. (Lahiru Pothmulla)