Geneva: Mahinda skips Navi Pillay’s meeting

March 4, 2013, 10:26 pm 

Presidential Human Rights envoy and Plantations Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe has caused quite a diplomatic stir in Geneva by skipping a meeting called by United Nations Human Rights Commissioner (UNHRC) Navi Pillay, following a swipe he had at her in Geneva last week.

The reason for his decision to keep away was not immediately known. Asked whether he had obtained the government’s nod for skipping Pillay’s meeting, sources answered in the negative.

In his Feb. 27 address to the ongoing 22nd sessions of the UNHRC in Geneva, Minister Samarasinghe lashed out at Pillay. Sri Lanka has been critical of Pillay for what it calls a human rights witch hunt.

Although it was speculated initially that the government would downgrade its delegation to Geneva this year, President Mahinda Rajapaksa intervened at the eleventh hour to have Minister Samarasinghe make a statement on behalf of Sri Lanka, though the country’s Permanent Representative in Geneva Ravinatha Aryasinha was scheduled to do so.

Current sessions which began on Feb 25 will continue till March 22. The Sri Lankan delegation to Geneva sessions comprised 12 persons, including Minister Samarasinghe and his personal secretary.

The delegation included six from the Attorney General’s Department and two officials from the Ministry of External Affairs.

Sources said that Minister Samarasinghe’s statement antagonized some countries, particularly the EU with German Ambassador Hanns H. Schumacher taking on Samarasinghe. The German envoy was quoted as having said that Navy Pillay was increasingly faced with unjust criticism and the statement made my Minister Samarasinghe at the ongoing sessions constitute an illustration.

The UNHRC comprised 47 countries divided into five sectors. Three of Sri Lanka’s major supporters namely Russia, China and Cuba are no longer members of the UNHRC, though they represented the global body last year. (SF)

People are taxed Rs.62 from every Rs.100 earned

The government collects Rs.62 as taxes from every Rs.100 earned by the people say Mr. Sajith Premadasa. He said rulers who grab the little the people earn by way of various taxes, plunder the resources of the country for their luxurious lives he said. Mr. Premadasa said this while on a tour in Hambantota District.