Boycott American products: Lanka minister

COLOMBO: Sri Lankans should boycott American products in protest against the US sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council, a government minister said on Tuesday. “I will stop using my gmail account. Let us boycott Pepsi, Coca Cola, Google and McDonalds”, Wimal Weerawansa, the Minister of Housing and Construction said, addressing an anti-US demonstration here. Weerawansa’s National Freedom Front is a constituent party of the ruling coalition of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. “This is an USLTTE resolution”, Weerawansa charged adding that the ulterior motive was to haul Rajapaksa and the Sri Lankan military leaders before the International Criminal Court (ICC). “There will be representatives from fi ve countries coming to Sri Lanka if the resolution gets passed at the UNHRC”, Weerawansa said. That would be the fi rst step to charge Sri Lankan President with war crimes, he added. The US resolution aimed at committing Colombo to implement its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) recommendations is being branded as interference in Sri Lanka’s sovereignty. The LLRC was cited as Colombo’s answer to international calls for accountability over alleged rights abuses that took place during the fi nal phase of the military campaign against the LTTE, who fought to set up a separate homeland for the Tamil minority.