The UN Human Rights Council has rejected a claim made by a member of the ruling coalition in Sri Lanka, that it provided money to fund a “diaspora festival”, as “completely untrue”.
“Neither the High Commissioner for Human Rights, nor the Human Rights Council has provided any money for any such event,” OHCHR spokesperson Rupert Colville told JDS on Monday.
The Jathika Hela Urumaya, a key coalition partner of the government in power, condemned the decision by the government to hold a "diaspora festival", claiming that the UNHRC had provided $3.2mn.
“There were reports that the United Nation Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has already donated over USD 3.2 million to hold this festival. It is highly questionable as to why they needed to allocate money in this regard,” he said.
“Who offers such amount of money for free? We cannot trust them because they had already taken action to file war crime charges against our country. The Diaspora Festival is very doubtful to the whole country,” JHU spokesperson Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe said.
Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera also rejected the claim, saying the festival was his idea, and not by any other organisation.
Diaspora festival 'threat to national unity' - JHU (21 June 2015)
UNP coalition partner blocks compensation to injured LTTE members and objects to diaspora talks (11 June 2015)