{"id":58495,"date":"2016-09-07T21:59:12","date_gmt":"2016-09-08T03:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=58495"},"modified":"2016-09-07T14:37:18","modified_gmt":"2016-09-07T21:37:18","slug":"govt-wary-of-seeking-explanation-from-un-unsg-likening-vanni-war-to-genocidal-violence-they-are-unsgs-personal-comments-karu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/09\/07\/govt-wary-of-seeking-explanation-from-un-unsg-likening-vanni-war-to-genocidal-violence-they-are-unsgs-personal-comments-karu\/","title":{"rendered":"Govt. wary of seeking explanation from UN  UNSG likening Vanni war to genocidal violence: They are UNSG\u2019s personal comments \u2013 Karu"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><span class=\"article_date\">By Maheesha Mudugamuwa\u00a0Courtesy The Island<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"article_date\">September 7, 2016, 9:52 pm<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.island.lk\/modules\/modPublication\/article_title_images\/151654640p1-3.jpg\" alt=\"article_image\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The government would not seek any clarification from the United Nations (UN) regarding the UN Secretary General (UNSG) Ban Ki-moon\u2019s\u00a0comparison of civilians deaths during the Vanni war with acts of genocide in Rwanda and Serbia in 1994 and 1995, respectively,\u00a0Deputy Minister\u00a0of Parliamentary\u00a0Reforms\u00a0and\u00a0Mass\u00a0Media\u00a0Karunarathna Paranawithana\u00a0said\u00a0yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>Responding to a query by <i>The Island <\/i>during the post-Cabinet media briefing at the Government Information Department, the Deputy Minister said the GoSL would not seek clarification as UNSG\u2019s remarks were not mentioned in his prepared speech made at the Colombo Hilton during Moon\u2019s recent visit to Sri Lanka and therefore UNSG\u2019s personal comments would not be accounted as that from the UN.<\/p>\n<p>Paranawithana also noted that since the UN was under huge pressure regarding the previous acts of genocides and therefore UNSGs, including Moon as well as ex-UN Chief Kofi Anan usually made comments on such incidents.<\/p>\n<p>The Deputy Media Minister, who had denied the UN Chief as having compared Sri Lanka\u2019s incidents with\u00a0acts of genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia,\u00a0said anyone could interpret what UNSG said in different ways.<\/p>\n<p>The government had no intention of taking up that issue as it was not the way to handle diplomatic relations, Paranawithana said.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Army Spokesman Brigadier Roshan Seneviratne said that Sri Lanka\u2019s war against LTTE terrorism couldn\u2019t be compared under any circumstances with acts of genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Army had not yet made any official statement regarding the UN Chief\u2019s comment, Brigadier Seneviratne said adding that he would consult the Army Commander\u00a0and let the media know the Army\u2019s stance.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Maheesha Mudugamuwa\u00a0Courtesy The Island September 7, 2016, 9:52 pm The government would not seek any clarification from the United Nations (UN) regarding the UN Secretary General (UNSG) Ban Ki-moon\u2019s\u00a0comparison of civilians deaths during the Vanni war with acts of genocide in Rwanda and Serbia in 1994 and 1995, respectively,\u00a0Deputy Minister\u00a0of Parliamentary\u00a0Reforms\u00a0and\u00a0Mass\u00a0Media\u00a0Karunarathna Paranawithana\u00a0said\u00a0yesterday. Responding to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58495","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=58495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}