Lanka capable of solving its internal issues - Russian envoy

Chaminda PERERA

Russia yesterday said that Sri Lanka's situation with regard to human rights does not in any way call for an external intervention and the Sri Lankan government is capable of solving its internal issues including human rights.

According to Russian ambassador to Sri Lanka, Vladimir P. Mikhaylov Russia strongly views that powerful nations do not have any right to dictate terms to other countries on how these countries should be governed and what kind of leaders should be in power.

He said that Russia is of the view that solving internal matters of soverign nations purely lies with the legitimate governments of particular countries and external intervention in this regard is totally unwarranted.

Speaking at a press conference to mark the 55th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Sri Lanka and Russia at the Russian Centre in Colombo, Vladimir Mikholov said that no massive scale Human Rights violation have taken place in Sri Lanka at present or even before. He said that the government has appointed a Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission of Sri Lanka to deal with the issues and the Commission has obtained evidence from hundreds of people and made their recommendations. He rejected the reports that Russia is not concerned on human rights violations. The Russian envoy said that Russia does care about human rights. "We do care about human rights, if they are violated on a massive scale", he stressed.

The Ambassador said that the legitimate government and institutions such as President, parliament who are elected by the majority of the people have every right to solve their problems and the United Nations has also ensured that right. "We always advocate that democratically elected government of Sri Lanka has a right to lead the people of Sri lanka. They know better how to deal with domestic problems and nobody should dictate terms to them" he added. He said that Russia would not participate in Friends of Syria forum in Tunisia. The Russian envoy said that not a single representative of the legitimate governments is participating in that forum.