Sri Lanka's prime minister, Ranil Wickremasinghe, said the resolution passed by the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) earlier this month calling for an investigation into genocide committed by successive governments against the Tamil people was "racist" and that the UN Human Rights Council's decision to defer the publication of a UN report into mass atrocities against the Tamil people was intended as a rebuke to the NPC resolution.
Addressing the Sinhala public at rally in Kurunegala this week, Mr Wickremasinghe said he was on a path to eradicate racism but faced obstacles.
"In this journey to eradicate racism two groups stand in opposition," he said, pointing to the NPC resolution and the Sinhala print media supportive of the former president Mahinda Rajapaksa.
"One is the racist statement by the Chief Minister of the Northern Province. In fact the international community gave a fine slap in the face to that. They said we will not be taking up the report in March but in September," Mr Wickremasinghe said.
"That was a slap in the face," he added, asking rhetorically: "I don't have to reprimand them after that, do I?"
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