Comments by Juliette De Rivero, advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, on the UN Human Rights Council’s resolution on Sri Lanka on Thursday:

“The Human Rights Council's vote demonstrates broad international dissatisfaction with Sri Lanka's accountability efforts in the three years since the end of the war.

Sri Lankan Minister Mervyn Silva has threatened human rights activists who attended the 19th UN Human Rights Council Session in Geneva, where a resolution about Sri Lanka was adopted yesterday.

Speaking at a protest against the resolution on Friday, Silva singled out activists Sunila Abeysekara, Nimalka Fernando and Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu and journalists Sunanda Deshapriya and Poddala Jayantha for betraying Sri Lanka and threatened them with violence.

The US state department has eased restrictions on defence exports to Sri Lanka on Thursday, the same day as the passing of a resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council, AP reports.

Tensions between the countries are high, as Sri Lanka rejected the US-sponsored resolution and condemned the interference into what it says are internal matters.

The state department said that the move to lift some restrictions, namely the exports of equipment for aerial and maritime equipment, is unrelated to the resolution.

Dayashri Jayasekara, an MP with Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party (UNP), told parliament that Rs. 6.35 million sent as aid to areas highly affected by floods in the East of Sri Lanka in 2011 had been misappropriated.

Jayasekara stated during a debate that several officials involved with the bank had been involved with embezzlement.

Writing in The Guardian on Tuesday, UK MPs, including former UK foreign secretaries, Douglas Alexander MP, David Miliband MP, Jack Straw MP and Margaret Beckett MP, urged member states to back a resolution tabled at the UNHRC.

Extracts reproduced below:

New evidence has emerged detailing the sequence of events that led to the killing of the senior LTTE commander, Colonel Ramesh, after in the custody of the Sri Lankan army, The Global Mail reports.

"Of the mass of available evidence, the most compelling trail is that of Colonel Ramesh. His death provides a crack of light that illuminates the deaths of thousands of others, and the motives of the probable perpetrators."

In an interview to the Debrief news channel, Robert O'Blake, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asia, warned of renewed violence in Sri Lanka if the government failed to take "real concrete action".

Asked by the presenter why the US was tabling a resolution at the UN Human Rights Council, despite Sri Lanka giving assurances, as a sovereign country, that it will act towards reconciliation, Blake said,

The UN Human Rights Council has passed a resolution calling on Sri Lanka to investigate alleged human rights violations.

The resolution, sponsored by the US and co-sponsored by 40 other nations, was passed by 24 votes to 15, with 8 abstentions.

The resolution calls on Sri Lanka to implement its own recommendations in addressing allegations of violations of international law.

The text also encourages the UN human rights office to assist Sri Lanka in implementing the steps recommended by the reolution.

“This is a very good start, but it is just a start. We need to keep up the pressure to make sure there is real change. The call for an independent international investigation remains, and will until it is answered.

“Many of the nations that supported Sri Lanka in 2009, such as Nigeria, Cameroon, and India, have realised that they were lied to and today took the courageous step of supporting the resolution. We particularly thank them.

Speaking to journalists on the resolution tabled at the UNHRC, the US ambassador, Eileen Donahue, said,

"We don't think of this as a symbolic vote,"

"We see this as a meaningful effort to encourage the Sri Lankan government to take credible steps. We fear the government of Sri Lanka might fail to take those credible steps."