Sri Lankan president flees to Belarus from UN Commissioner?

Mahinda Rajapaksa'a visit to Belarus miraculously coincides with the arrival of the UN Commissioner for Human Rights to Sri Lanka.

The opposition United National Party thinks it's not a mere coincident. UNP leader Tissa Attanayake said it today at a press conference in the Sri Lankan capital, the local website adaderana.lk reports.

The general secretary of the United National Party expressed his regret over Mahinda Rajapaksa'a scheduled visit to the country known as the last dictatorship in Europe during the visit of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay to Sri Lanka. He said the president ran away from the country without facing Navi Pillay.

The politician spoke about the latests facts of persecution of journalist and political activists in Sri Lanka.

The heads of the two countries are said to have discussed military and technical cooperation at a meeting in Minsk today.

“I know that Sri Lanka lays special emphasis on boosting the country's defence capabilities and national security. You know the value of peace. We welcome the aspiration of Sri Lanka for military and technical cooperation. We say 'yes'. We will do our best to contribute to the security and defence capabilities of your state,” Lukashenka said.

Sri Lanka wants to repair military equipment in Belarus, according to earlier reports.

It's worth noting that the country lying south of India was invovled in an almost 30-year civil war between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist militant organisation. After a number of failures and truces the government forces achieved a victory over militants. The main forces of the Tamil separatists were surrounded and destroyed in 2009.

The confrontation between supporters of Tamil Eelam's independence and the country's central authorities goes on. Human rights activists report about political prisoners and torture of the opponents of the government.

The international human rights group reports about more than 70 facts of violence against the people detained for their possible ties with the Tigers.