Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe has challenged the European Union (EU) and Switzerland to talk on human rights violations committed by LTTE rather than blame the Sri Lankan Government.

Samarasinghe`s statement comes after the EU and Switzerland blamed the Sri Lankan Government for neglecting human rights violations in the country at the seventh Human Rights Council in Geneva. They had further said that Sri Lanka`s human rights record during the past had not been favourable and that conditions in the country had deteriorated.

Replying to the accusation, the Minister had said that the government was doing its best to curb human rights violations. He had further said the government had appointed commissions to investigate into the recent abductions of civilians. Samarasinghe had challenged the EU and Switzerland to talk about the human rights violations caused by the LTTE.
Both the EU and Switzerland had accused Sri Lanka of neglecting its human rights violations.

The Minister also took the opportunity to make a clarification on a misinterpretation of the country`s situation by the British Minister for Africa, Asia and the UN, Mark Malloch-Brown. Minister Samarasinghe had stated that it was the right of Sri Lanka to defend itself against misinterpretations.

The Minister had stated that even though Britain is among powerful countries, it does not have the right to accuse Sri Lanka. He had further said that the British were playing a double game in this regard.

According to a highly-placed source, the Minister had called President Mahinda Rajapaksa to inform him about the accusation made by the British Minister. The President had said that he did not want anyone accusing Sri Lanka and wanted all those accusations squashed.

The Minister had apparently received permission from the President to respond to the remarks by the British Minister. However, Minister Samarasinghe had later had a very cordial bilateral meeting with Minister Brown, during which he had queried whether he stood by the story published in the website.

In the story, Malloch-Brown has been quoted as saying that the previous elections held in Sri Lanka were not free and fair. The British Minister had told Samarasinghe that he had been misquoted. He had added that what he had said was that the Tamils lost an opportunity by not participating in the election in which there was a huge chance to elect the candidate of their choice.