Sri Lanka moves to avoid criticism over rights abuses

Sept 14, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka said Friday it was ready to accept foreign scrutiny of its human rights record in a bid to head off formal United Nations criticism over a spate of killings and disappearances.
At the same time the war-torn island’s government, locked in a decades-old war with Tamil Tiger separatists, also argued that criticism of authorities in Colombo would play into the hands of rebel “terrorists.
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The move comes as the UN Human Rights Council discusses Sri Lanka’s rights record in Geneva, with diplomatic sources saying European Union member states were mulling a resolution condemning Colombo.

“The proposed EU initiative cannot be regarded as an appropriate way to constructively engage a country, which has a long-standing policy of openness and cooperation with UN human rights mechanisms,” Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said in a statement.

Meeting with the British High Commissioner Dominic Chilcott, the minister said such a resolution would be “sensationalised by media and abused by the LTTE for its own propaganda purposes.”

“The LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) is a terrorist organisation and international agencies must avoid providing a lifeline to the LTTE