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Message: <blockquote data-quote="lkdood" data-source="post: 7805571" data-attributes="member: 92282"><img src="http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=AD&Date=20100703&Category=FOREIGN&ArtNo=707029792&Ref=AR&Profile=1002&MaxW=300" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Sri Lankan demonstrators protest outside the UN office in Colombo. (Ishara Kodikara / AFP)Thursday was not a good day for Sri Lanka: the United States said it  had accepted a labour organisation’s request to probe workers’ rights  issues in the country, and the European Union lent its backing to a UN  panel examining the country’s human-rights record.Adding to  Colombo’s woes, an EU deadline for the government to provide written  guidelines to implement conditions for the extension of zero-duty  imports into Europe ended on Thursday. “It was missiles raining all over,” said a senior economist working  at a local think-tank who spoke on condition of anonymity. The  external affairs minister, G L Peiris, had rejected the call for a  “written undertaking” from the EU and denounced the UN panel as  unwarranted. The EU ambassador in Colombo, Bernard Savage, said  on Thursday that the July 1 date on the written guidelines was flexible.  “Even if the government responds by Monday [July 5] we are prepared to  accept it,” he said by telephone. The government has yet to respond to the US decision on workers’  rights, which involves whether Sri Lanka has met the Generalized System  of Preferences (GSP) eligibility criteria related to workers’ rights. The  preference system is designed to promote economic growth in the  developing world.Dayan Jayatilleka, a former Sri Lankan  ambassador and permanent representative at the UN in Geneva, said of the  AFL-CIO, the US organisation that filed the petition, that it  “traditionally exercises a huge influence on the Democratic Party, its  senators and congressmen. “If we lose our access to the important US market, on top of losing  the EU market, our economy and more importantly our working people and  their living standards will be badly affected,” he said in an e-mail.The  US Embassy in Colombo said in a statement that a public hearing is  likely to be held next month to discuss the workers’ rights issues  raised in the petition, adding that the Sri Lankan government will be  invited to participate in the hearing. The UN Panel on Human Rights appointed last week triggered a furore  in Colombo with Wimal Weerawansa, a cabinet minister who represents one  of the coalition partners in the government, cajoling the public to  surround the UN office in Colombo as a protest against the appointment  of the panel. He made the call at a press conference on Wednesday, which  drew a response the following day from the government – in a statement –  that Mr Weerawansa’s view was his own and did not reflect that of the  government. Also on Thursday, Catherine Ashton, the EU’s high representative for  foreign affairs and security policy, issued a statement welcoming the UN  Panel and urging the government to fully co-operate.JC  Weliamuna, a human-rights lawyer and executive director at the Colombo  office of Transparency International, lamented the lack of diplomacy in  Sri Lanka’s dealing with the international community.“We need to  display a sense of diplomacy and tact in our response,” he said. “We  need to save both trade pacts with the EU and the US, and we can do it.  Unfortunately the president is ill-advised by a set of incompetent  advisers and politically motivated persons, and is going by this  advise,” he said, declining to name the individuals. “I am sure if the president gets good advice he can win over the  international community like winning the war.” President Mahinda  Rajapaksa’s armed forces crushed the Tamil rebels in May last year,  ending a 30-year-long battle by rebels to set up an independent homeland  for minority Tamils.Since then, Mr Rajapaksa has come under  intense pressure from the West to respond to allegations that there were  large-scale civilian casualties during the last stages of the conflict.  He has repeatedly denied the claims and rejected any attempt by the  international community to launch a war-crimes probe.<a href="http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100703/FOREIGN/707029792/1002" target="_blank">The National</a></blockquote>

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