In an interview with Sami Zeiden of Al Jazeera, Sri Lanka's Justice Minister, Rauf Hakeem, asserted that Sri Lanka was being 'unfairly targetted' by the Human Rights Council, and felt 'victimised' by the European Union.
Speaking about the UNHRC resolution passed earlier this year, Hakeem said,
"the European Union is to certain extent misguided in the way in which they are looking at the way forward as far as reconciliation in a post-conflict scenario is concerned."
"We have been telling these countries, with whom we still have a multifaceted, fine, diplomatic relationship, that we should be given the necessary time and space for us to build a home grown reconciliation process rather than imposing time limits and trying to trut out or advise our government on matters that could only be best decided by us."
"It's very unfortunate that the United States went ahead and did this [tabling UNHRC resolution in March 2012]. In fact they gave notice to us about this resolution to us only in late January. And that to, we were told the decision has already been made in Washington, and there after we were told that if you want you can come and engage with us but the fact is the decision has been made. And therefore we had no option but to go ahead and convince our friends at the Human Rights Council, and lobby in a post-haste fashion as it were".
Further extracts of interview follow verbatim:
Q: Who then, will be investigating, it seems to me that you're saying you will investigate allegations of human rights abuses, who will be investigating that? Will you be setting up a new commission? Will you be setting up a new mechanism? Who will be investigating allegations of human rights abuses?
A: We have capable government institutions Sir. Which will go ahead and do the investigation. We have a police department, we have different arms of the police department, which are specialised agencies. In the first place, the attorney general's department has been sifting through the evidence that are available, and have also, in cases where sufficient evidence is not available to go ahead an prosecute, we have asked the police department to further investigate, and bring to light the necessary evidential material, for us to prosecute the offenders if at all.
And the questions of impunity in the post-conflict scenario, will have to be seriously addressed and this is a field or area in which we are not going to leave anything unearthed.
Q: Do you believe the Sri Lankan armed forces committed any war crimes or human rights abuses?
A: Certainly not. I must say there could have been collateral damage. There could have been instances where the judgment of commanders on the ground, may have been based on certain information that may have been found to be not true, finally. But then whatever happened, I feel, if at all, would have happened, not by deliberate intention, but due to, due to the pressure, God knows what happened in the last phases.
