The United National Party today stated that the UN human rights chief Navi Pillay had failed to mention, in her statement prior to leaving the country, that Sri Lanka is not only an increasingly authoritarian state but has now become a “fully fledged kleptocracy”.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at the end of a week-long visit, speaking at a press conference on Saturday (Aug 31) said that she was “deeply concerned that Sri Lanka despite the opportunity provided by the end of the war to construct a new vibrant, all embracing state, is showing signs of heading in and increasingly authoritarian direction.”

Referring to this statement, UNP MP Mangala Samaraweera stated that the High Commissioner had left out one crucial aspect in her statement that “Sri Lanka is not only an increasingly authoritarian state but Sri Lanka has now become a fully fledged kleptocracy.”

The incumbent Government of Sri Lanka has become one of the most corrupt government’s in the entire world, he told reporters in Colombo today.

The people of the country have lost their right to live peacefully due to this corruption, the UNP Communications chief said, adding, that even the great development the government continues to boast about is a development of “commissions.”

He charged that high-ranking state officials are even extracting commissions from the stones used to lay pavements on the roadside in Colombo. “This is the bitter truth.”