What's Sri Lanka’s response to the forthcoming UN internal review, which is to state that under intense pressure from Sri Lankan authorities, the UN concealed its knowledge that “a large majority” of civilian deaths in the closing months of war in 2009 were caused by government shelling?
Denial, of course. See AFP’s report here.
This is what Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, who is also Sri Lanka’s envoy to the UN Human Rights Council, told reporters Wednesday:
“Maybe this (leaked) report is a fabrication.”
He added that Colombo had a good rapport with humanitarian agencies, including UN workers and that they had held regular meetings during the war.
“I chaired those meetings at the defence ministry and we addressed many issues and found answers,” he said. “We worked closely with the UN and others.”
On the report’s account of the Sri Lankan government's “stratagem of intimidation” - including control of visas for critical UN staff - prevented the UN from protecting civilians in the conflict zone, Samarasinghe had this to say:
“There was no intimidation … No such thing. How can you intimidate them? They don't get intimidated by anyone.”
On Sri Lanka’s ordering UN aid workers out of Vanni in 2008, ahead of the massive military onslaught on the region, Samarasinghe said:
"I have not heard anyone say that we asked them to go out (of the conflict zone)."
