Former minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said convincing the UN Human Rights Council and the US to postpone the release of the OHCHR report on the investigation into Sri Lanka was the new government’s greatest achievement so far.
Mr Samarasinghe, who represented Sri Lanka as former president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s human rights envoy at previous HRC sessions, said the release of the report in March would have been “extremely dangerous” for the country.
"Various people may say various things but as a person who frequented Geneva and faced the US sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka, I was aware of what was in store for us. If it was taken up in March 2015 as scheduled, the result would have been extremely dangerous for the country," he said in parliament on Thursday.
"As a country which fought a war against a terrorist group for thirty long years one cannot assure that human rights were 100 per cent protected. Anyone would know it is not possible. Even though the previous government was able to win the resolution against the country in 2009, it failed to keep up the victory. We should admit that delay in taking certain steps locally and our foreign policy put us in a negative position internationally," he said.
Mr Samarasinghe noted that the country's foreign policy strategy of aligning with particular countries and considering others as “enemies” brought no benefit.
"Even though countries like China helped us at the UNHRC, they failed to bring a single other vote in favour for us. No matter what others may say, the most powerful country that could influence others is none other than the US. Their President need not get involved but even an official like Secretary John Kerry can change things with a single telephone call and this was what happened last time. This government has clearly understood this," he added.
The former minister said the country was not completely out of danger and needs to act to ensure human rights are respected to avert more scrutiny at the HRC.
"If not, there will be no further chance once the much awaited report on Sri Lanka is presented to the UNHRC in September," he said.