President of Sri Lanka Spurns an Inquiry

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/01/world/asia/president-of-sri-lanka-spurns-an-inquiry.html

Version 0 of 1.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday rejected calls for an international investigation into accusations of massacres and human rights violations during the final phase of Sri Lanka’s civil war, which ended in 2009. “If there is evidence, let them show us,” Mr. Rajapaksa said. “We will look into it.” Meeting with an association of foreign journalists in Sri Lanka for the first time in three years, Mr. Rajapaksa said that recent resolutions criticizing Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council could arise from a hidden agenda. On Thursday, the State Department released a report that was highly critical of the Rajapaksa government, claiming that in 2013 “attacks, harassment, and threats by pro-government loyalists against critics of the government were prevalent, contributed to widespread self-censorship by journalists, and diminished democratic activity.” On Friday, Mr. Rajapaksa likened the friction between the United States and Sri Lanka to “Cassius Clay fighting with a schoolboy,” a reference to the boxer now known as Muhammad Ali. But he said that the two countries were still friends.