Sri Lanka’s president Maithripala Sirisena reportedly questioned his cabinet on how the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism Ben Emmerson was allowed to meet Tamils detained as alleged Liberation Tamil Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fighters.
The Daily Mirror reported the meeting request was sanctioned by Sri Lanka’s Foreign Affairs Ministry.
Mr Emmerson who concluded his visit to Sri Lanka with a damning statement on Friday said Sri Lanka had done “almost nothing” to hold human rights violators in the military to account adding that “the use of torture has been and remains today, endemic and routine, for those arrested and detained on national security grounds.”
In an immediate response to the UN rapporteur’s exit statement, Sri Lanka’s justice minister, Wijedassa Rajapaksha rejected the statement and instead accused Mr Emmerson of dictating to Sri Lanka.
