Sri Lanka will not cooperate with the United Nations’ inquiry into wartime mass atrocities, Foreign Minister GL Peiris said Monday, in comments reported by Reuters and AP.
"Where the government is required to do anything to support the investigation or to participate in it, the government will not do that," he said.
"They [UN] will have to tell us what they want to do. But the clear policy decision had been taken that we do not associate ourself with the inquiry and we do not submit to the jurisdiction of the investigating committee," he said.
"Nobody can come here without the cooperation of the Sri Lankan government," he added.
The government had not accepted the UN investigations due to concerns over its legality, fairness, and some conflict of interest issues, he said.
Sri Lanka does not accept the authority of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay to conduct an investigation, Peiris said.
He said such an investigation will not be fair and objective because Pillay has a prejudged mind.
Peiris was speaking to the Foreign Correspondents Association (FCA) forum.
The UN Human Rights Council on March 27 authorised the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to conduct an inquiry into abuses in the last decade of the conflict.
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