March 15, 2007	Thursday	Safar 25, 1428

COLOMBO: The Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) party said on Wednesday that it will block moves by the government to bring to Sri Lanka the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and a Special Representative of the UN Secretary General to carry out a fact finding mission on the human rights situation here.

The Marxists in a statement on Wednesday threatened to mobilise the public against the visit of the two envoys stating it would lead to the United Nations sending a peace keeping mission to Sri Lanka.

Describing the government’s decision to invite the UN envoys as a ‘treacherous act’, the JVP warned that the party would prevent any ‘interference’ by international forces.

The government on Monday announced that it was inviting United Nations representatives on a fact finding mission following calls by various groups for international monitoring of the human rights situation in the country amidst regularly occurring abductions and disappearances.

Sri Lanka’s Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe in his speech at the fourth session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva said the government had invited two United Nations envoys with the hope that constructive recommendations would stem from the visit.

Despite mass scale protests threatened by the JVP, human rights activists say they would heavily support the visit by United Nations representatives as the war like atmosphere in the north-east takes a turn for the worst.

“Any step that is being taken to make sure that the human rights situation in Sri Lanka improves, is a positive move and should be pursued”, northern Jaffna based member of the Human Right Commission, Saroja Sivachandran said.

Meanwhile, with increased international pressure on the Sri Lankan government to investigate into allegations of human rights violations levelled against the military, President Mahinda Rajapakse last week claimed that “conspiracies” were being hatched to discredit his government.