A human rights group, Centre for Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (CPPHR)  working in the North-East accused the Sri Lankan police of harassing them after their meeting with United Nations Human Rights Chief, Navi Pillay, last week.

Speaking at a ceremony held in a recently reconstructed church that was damaged by the 2004 Tsunami, Mahinda Rajapaksa reiterated that his government was committed to protect the rights of all religions.

"Theravada Buddhism is a form of Buddhism that takes as its authority of set of texts written in Paali, which go back many many centuries to two millennia. This is the kind of Buddhism that is followed by Buddhists in Sri Lanka, South East, Thailand, Cambodia and Lao.

Mahayana Buddhism which is the other main stream of Buddhism, to simplify things, is the kind of Buddhism followed in Tibet and China. They have scriptures that correspond in some way to the Pali cannon but they also have additional texts that they take as authoritative."

"There are texts that have been used in recent years to justify violence."

"For example there are texts, the Buddha once spoke with a mercenary. The mercenary asked the Buddha for example, 'Look I'm not an aahat [enlightened being], I'm not enlightened, what I'm doing though is my job, will I have repurcussions for it?' And the Buddha said 'yes, you'll have repurcussions for it. Not for the act of killing, but for holding debase thoughts and bad intentions whilst doing the killing'.

This text has been used sometimes, by for example by Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka right now, by Buddhist monks in Thailand, to give sermons to soldiers to cool their minds, in order for them to clear thoughts whilst doing the killing."

Addressing press in Colombo at the end of her seven day visit to Sri Lanka and the North-East, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay said,

"I am deeply concerned that Sri Lanka, despite the opportunity provided by the end of the war to construct a new vibrant, all-embracing state, is showing signs of heading in an increasingly authoritarian direction,"

"It is important everyone realizes that, although the fighting is over, the suffering is not."

"The LTTE sympathiser networks have been in this business for a long time. It was their big money-raiser. They are still doing it today. I don't know whether the money they make goes to the LTTE today or to propaganda efforts.

“Navi Pillay’s take on the human rights situation during her visit very muchechoes our own findings. Being critical of government policy in Sri Lanka is highly risky, and the extent to which people are being harassed into silence is shocking”, said Polly Truscott, Amnesty International’s Deputy Asia Pacific Director in a statement released on Saturday.

“We’re glad that Navi Pillay got a chance to meet some victims and families of the disappeared. But the reprisals against those she met, doesn’t bode well for the Commonwealth Summit set for November in Colombo.”

A new media campaign aimed at attracting Chinese travellers to Sri Lanka was launched in Beijing today.