Ravinatha Aryasinha.

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka on Saturday accused the UN human rights chief of using “intemperate language” to vilify a member state when he said the island nation was attacking the integrity of the world body’s investigation into alleged wartime abuses.

In a letter Saturday to Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, Sri Lanka’s permanent United Nations representative, Ravinatha Aryasinha, also said double standards were being applied against Sri Lanka.

Aryasinha’s letter followed a statement by Hussein on Friday accusing Sri Lanka of carrying out a distortion and disinformation campaign against the UN investigation and of attempting to prevent witnesses from submitting evidence.

“It is a matter of deep concern to note that you, as a high official of the UN system, have resorted to the use of intemperate language to attack and vilify a sovereign member of the United Nations. Further, you have chosen to cast aspersions and denigrate a democratically elected government,” Aryasinha wrote.

The UN human rights body is investigating alleged abuses committed during the final phase of Sri Lanka’s 25-year civil war, which ended in 2009 when government troops defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Sri Lanka has rejected the investigation and refused to allow investigators into the country. Hussein said in his statement that the government’s refusal to participate in the investigation raised concerns about its integrity, questioning why a government with nothing to hide would be uncooperative.

Aryasinha, however, said that his country’s refusal to participate was not tantamount to concealing information. “The government of Sri Lanka has steadfastly maintained that it owes to the country’s dignity not to subject its people to an investigation that does not conform to even the minimum requisites of justice and fair play,” he said.

An earlier UN report said up to 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians may have been killed in the last months of the civil war, and accused both sides of serious human rights violations.

 
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