Sri Lanka’s president lashed out against a UN resolution that his government co-sponsored at the Human Rights Council in Geneva last week, calling it a “betrayal” of the military and rejecting its terms.
In a more extensive transcript of his speech that the AP reported on Wednesday, Maithripala Sirisena said "that he will not any way accept the agreement” signed by his government, that saw Sri Lanka granted a two year extension to set up a hybrid court with international judges to prosecute for mass atrocities.
The President’s Media Division also quoted Sirisena as saying “he will extend his fullest discontentment regarding that incident which was occurred due to the wrongful decisions of our own parties”. He went on to speak out against so called “colonial conspiracies”and vowed not to “allow room for any foreign force to rule this country either today, or in the future”.
AP reported that Sirisena claimed the resolution was co-sponsored without his knowledge and the full transcript of his speech saw the Sri Lankan president state that “responsibility regarding the foreign policy of the country, international relations and international affairs” lay solely with his office.
See more from the Sri Lankan President’s Media Division here.
AP reported Sirisena as having added that Sri Lanka’s foreign minister Thilak Marapana was also not aware of the decision, despite Marapana addressing the council the day before the resolution and immediately it was passed.
