External Affairs Minister Professor G.L Peiris says Sri Lanka is being used as a stage by some countries to gain the support of the United States.Speaking at an event organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Colombo today the Minister said that Sri Lanka was aware that most countries who voted in support of a US sponsored resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) recently did so with other intentions.
He said that they voted for the resolution not because they had concerns about Sri Lanka but because they did not want to go against the US.
The Minister said that most of the countries which backed the resolution had a lot to gain from the US and so had no choice.
He said that the Sri Lankan government was concerned with such a situation and that such moves were unfair on the part of Sri Lanka.
The UNHRC in March adopted the US sponsored resolution on Sri Lanka with 25 in favor, 13 against it and 8 abstentions.
The US Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, in presenting the resolution to the Council, said that there were 41 co-sponsors to the resolution.
The resolution had as the co-sponsors Austria, Canada, Croatia, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, St Kitts and Nevis, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and United States of America. (Colombo Gazette)
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