{"id":51854,"date":"2016-02-07T14:08:11","date_gmt":"2016-02-07T21:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=51854"},"modified":"2016-02-07T14:08:11","modified_gmt":"2016-02-07T21:08:11","slug":"gota-slams-british-hypocricy-on-julian-assange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/02\/07\/gota-slams-british-hypocricy-on-julian-assange\/","title":{"rendered":"Gota slams British hypocricy on Julian Assange"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Shamindra Ferdinando\u00a0Courtesy The Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

February 6, 2016, 7:46 pm<\/span>
\nFormer Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa yesterday said that the UK\u2019s outright rejection of the UN ruling that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange be allowed to go free highlighted again British double standards vis-a-vis Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

“Obviously, the British do not practice what they preach to us here as well as other international forums regularly,” Rajapaksa sarcastically said.<\/p>\n

Referring to recent statements made in Colombo by Hugo Swire, UK Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, he told the Sunday Island that the UK had been exerting pressure on Sri Lanka on the basis of unsubstantiated UN accusations propagated by the pro-LTTE Tamil diaspoa.<\/p>\n

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The war veteran pointed out that UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has branded the UN ruling as ridiculous.<\/p>\n

The UK, which is a member of the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council, appeared to have been shocked by the ruling made by the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Rajapaksa said.<\/p>\n

UK wants to arrest and hand over Assange, an Australian, to Sweden where he is wanted in connection with allegations of rape. Assange obtained refuge in Ecuador\u2019s embassy in London in 2012.<\/p>\n

“Assange is a fugitive from justice, voluntarily hiding in the Ecuadorian Embassy,” UK Foreign Minister Philip Hammond tweeted. “I reject the report from UNWGAD.”<\/p>\n

The UK arrested Assange in London in 2010 under a European arrest warrant issued by Sweden over rape and sexual assault allegations.<\/p>\n

Two years later, while on bail, Assange claimed asylum in the Ecuador embassy in Knightsbridge.<\/p>\n

Rajapaksa said that the UN-UK clash couldn\u2019t have happened at a better time for Sri Lanka now facing war crimes inquiry. “I hope the local media raise this issue with UN high commissioner for\u00a0human rights, Zeid Ra\u2019ad Al Hussein, who arrived in Sri Lanka on Saturday,”the former Defence Secretary said.<\/p>\n

Rajapaksa alleged that Hussein is here to press for hybrid war crimes court to investigate allegations.<\/p>\n

The former Defence Secretary said that the country appreciated the recent declaration made by President Maithripala Sirisena that there was no requirement for international judges in the proposed court. He urged the British High Commission here to explain UK\u2019s response to UN ruling on Assange.<\/p>\n

The British HC here had been playing a big role in pushing for a UN probe on alleged war crimes here at the behest of the UK based diaspora groups, Rajapaksa said recalling a spate of Wikileaks revelations pertaining to Sri Lanka over the years.<\/p>\n

In fact, if not for Julian Assange we wouldn\u2019t have known the then British Foreign Secretary David Miliband throwing a lifeline to sinking Tigers to appease British voters of Sri Lankan origin, he said.<\/p>\n

Responding to a query, Rajapaksa said that the US reaction to the UN ruling would be the same as of the British. The former Defence Secretary, whom former US Ambassador in Colombo Patricia Butenis called a war criminal, in a cable exposed by Wikileaks pointed out that Assange had reiterated his fear of being extradited to the US to face charges.<\/p>\n

Rajapaksa said that the reaction of various Western-funded champions of human rights should reveal their stand on the Assange affair. They had been ready to condemn Sri Lanka during the war as well as the post-conflict period, Rajapaksa said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Shamindra Ferdinando\u00a0Courtesy The Island February 6, 2016, 7:46 pm Former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa yesterday said that the UK\u2019s outright rejection of the UN ruling that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange be allowed to go free highlighted again British double standards vis-a-vis Sri Lanka. “Obviously, the British do not practice what they preach to us […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}