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Oppn, religious groups side with Lanka govt against UNHRC move

COLOMBO - The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution against Sri Lanka has united the Lankan government and the country’s main opposition, the United National Party (UNP) and other religious groups.

The UNP, which continues to be at loggerheads with the government over several issues, on Monday promised to back the government in any action that is taken on behalf of the country. UNP’s official spokesman Gayantha Karunatilleke said that the party was fully opposed to any resolution adopted against Sri Lanka by the UNHRC.

The Catholic Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith condemned the move by the United States and other Western countries as “undue meddling in the sovereignty and integrity of Sri Lanka.”

The Catholic Church recently protested against a scheduled bill that will make abortion legal under certain circumstances in the country. Last December the church vowed to boycott all state functions when the police arrested a nun belonging to the Mother Theresa order on suspicion of child trafficking of orphans.

During a religious ceremony organised to coincide with the day the UNHRC sessions kicked off in Geneva, the Buddhist religious head, the Udugama Sri Buddharakkita Mahanayaka Thera of Asgiriya accused Western powers of trying to destabilise the country which is on its path to peace after three decades of war. Both religious heads called on the people to unite as Lankans irrespective of their faiths and castes.

Sri Lanka is fighting against a US-sponsored motion on alleged human rights abuses by its army during the war against LTTE at the ongoing UNHRC sessions.

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