The Sri Lankan government rejected the claims made by the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, including among other things that “significant gaps exist particularly in upholding accountability and access to justice as well as ensuring non-recurrence of human rights violations.”
“Sri Lanka received the SR in August 2019, barely 4 months after the country had suffered a series of horrendous terrorist attacks,” the country’s delegation said in Geneva this week, complaining that the government at the time had not been given credit for facilitating the visit or the “positive measures undertaken by the government and the law enforcement agencies to foster religious harmony”.
The government was particularly incensed by the Special Rapporteur’s reporting on Sinhala mob violence against Muslims which occurred in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday attacks.
“The Government rejects the inaccurate references in the SR’s report to “serious concerns” regarding “Sri Lankan security forces colluding with mobs and not acting to prevent or stop the violence”; the “lack of response from the authorities against this violence”; and the claims that “acts of violence are indulged by the silence and inaction from the authorities”. It is regrettable that these inaccurate accounts have been included in the report, even after they have been fully rebutted and explained by the Government soon after the alleged incidents,” the Sri Lankan government said.
“The security forces of Sri Lanka merit particular commendation for their prompt and professional action in this regard,” the delegation claimed instead.
Sri Lanka also took objection to the rapporteur’s mentioning of attacks on Hindu, Muslim and Christian places of worship but not of the alleged victimisation of Buddhists:
“In describing attacks against and desecration of places of worship, the report has failed to refer to incidents of attacks on and vandalizing of Buddhist places of worship and instances of obstruction of Buddhist devotes in certain areas of the country.”
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