State Minister Vidura Wickramanayaka, told the Sunday Observer, that “as a sovereign state, we cannot let the UNHRC or any other organisation take us for a ride.”

Commenting on Resolution 30/1 that Sri Lanka co-sponsored in 2015, Wickramanayaka said:

“It is my personal view that the previous government probably did not know that we are a sovereign nation. They would have thought we were a colony. At that particular time they may have thought it was the best thing to do, drawing that line with America that originally sponsored it.”

“Now that the US has withdrawn from operations there, they are no longer there, and so are we without the sponsor,” he added.

Wickramanayaka made these comments in response to the Tamil National Alliance’s (TNA) Leader, R Sampanthan’s remarks that Sri Lanka should avoid making fresh presentations to UNHRC as it had already co-sponsored a resolution.

“To say that we are going to or would make any fresh presentations in this regard has absolutely no meaning, because making a presentation on behalf of the country and the people is what is expected of us at these forums,” he said.

During his election campaign, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa vowed to reject the UN resolution. The resolution mandated an accountability mechanism with international judges to prosecute crimes committed during the final months of the armed conflict, in which tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were killed.