"As for making enemies of the West, certain Western countries wanted us to stop the war against the LTTE and I refused. That was why they fell out with us. If I had caved into their pressure and allowed the LTTE to exist, the Western powers would all have been my friends. The UN Human Rights Council did pass resolutions against Sri Lanka during my tenure. However, nobody should be under the illusion that voting in the UNHRC is free and fair. The powerful Western countries twist the arms of smaller and weaker nations to get them to vote even against their conscience. On every occasion that resolutions were passed against Sri Lanka, the Obama administration was able to get a certain number of countries to refrain from voting. That is what enabled the resolutions to be passed because the votes not cast are not taken into account. If we go into the records of the UNHRC, we will see that all those countries that refrained from voting made speeches in Sri Lanka’s favour and then refrained from voting – which was their way of indicating that they were refraining from voting in favour of Sri Lanka only under duress."
History
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Sunday, 9 October 2016
Making enemies with the west
Mahinda Rajapaksa ON MAKING ENEMIES WITH THE WEST AND THE RESULTANT UNHRC RESOLUTION; (Sunday Times 9th October 2016)
"As for making enemies of the West, certain Western countries wanted us to stop the war against the LTTE and I refused. That was why they fell out with us. If I had caved into their pressure and allowed the LTTE to exist, the Western powers would all have been my friends. The UN Human Rights Council did pass resolutions against Sri Lanka during my tenure. However, nobody should be under the illusion that voting in the UNHRC is free and fair. The powerful Western countries twist the arms of smaller and weaker nations to get them to vote even against their conscience. On every occasion that resolutions were passed against Sri Lanka, the Obama administration was able to get a certain number of countries to refrain from voting. That is what enabled the resolutions to be passed because the votes not cast are not taken into account. If we go into the records of the UNHRC, we will see that all those countries that refrained from voting made speeches in Sri Lanka’s favour and then refrained from voting – which was their way of indicating that they were refraining from voting in favour of Sri Lanka only under duress."
"As for making enemies of the West, certain Western countries wanted us to stop the war against the LTTE and I refused. That was why they fell out with us. If I had caved into their pressure and allowed the LTTE to exist, the Western powers would all have been my friends. The UN Human Rights Council did pass resolutions against Sri Lanka during my tenure. However, nobody should be under the illusion that voting in the UNHRC is free and fair. The powerful Western countries twist the arms of smaller and weaker nations to get them to vote even against their conscience. On every occasion that resolutions were passed against Sri Lanka, the Obama administration was able to get a certain number of countries to refrain from voting. That is what enabled the resolutions to be passed because the votes not cast are not taken into account. If we go into the records of the UNHRC, we will see that all those countries that refrained from voting made speeches in Sri Lanka’s favour and then refrained from voting – which was their way of indicating that they were refraining from voting in favour of Sri Lanka only under duress."