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Friday, March 12, 2010 - 07.41 GMT |
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NAM condemns
selective targeting of Sri Lanka |
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The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) comprising 124 member States, condemns the intention of the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to appoint a Panel of Experts to advice on accountability issues relating to Sri Lanka, said Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights, Mahinda Samarasinghe at a media briefing today (12 March).
The Minister further said that this was the opinion of almost 2/3rd membership of the United Nations which consist 194 member States. NAM is the largest inter- regional bloc in the world, the Minister said further. Thus, countries that act contrary to their opinions would contradict almost 2/3rd membership of the United Nations.
The Chair of the Coordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Movement, Ambassador and Permanent Representative, Maged A. Abdelaziz states in his letter, "the Non- Aligned Movement strongly condemns selective targeting of individual countries which it deems contrary to the Founding Principles of the Movement and the United Nations Charter".
"In this Context, the Movement firmly opposes the unilateral evaluation and certification of the conduct of States as a means of exerting pressure on Non- Aligned Countries and other developing countries", the Ambassador further states.
He also emphasized that "the situation in Sri Lanka is not on the agenda of any of these bodies, and there is nothing in the Charter of the United Nations that authorize intervention in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state, without prejudice of course to the application of enforcement measures under Chaper VII".
Minister Samarasinghe also said that before the UN Secretary General had telephoned President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the President already had the intention of appointing a committee to study the root causes of the conflict in order to avoid such a conflict from occurring again in the future.
Now there is an excellent opportunity for reconciliation and development so that all communities could have equal benefits and live in peace and harmony, the Minister said further.
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