SRI LANKA: PROBABLE "YES" ON SUDAN SPECIAL SESSION

C O N F I D E N T I A L COLOMBO 002045 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/INS, IO/UNP AND DRL GENEVA FOR U.S. HRC DELEGATION E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/30/2016 TAGS: KTIA PHUM PREL SU UN CE SUBJECT: SRI LANKA: PROBABLE "YES" ON SUDAN SPECIAL SESSION RESOLUTION REF: STATE 195763 Classified By: Pol Chief Michael DeTar, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Pol Chief demarched MFA multilateral section deputy director Gunesekara on December 8, who confirmed that Sri Lanka was leaning toward voting for the Finnish resolution. Gunesekara reported that the Sri Lankan Ambassador had weighed in with a favorable recommendation on the Finnish draft, and was requesting an instruction to vote for it. Gunesekara said that MFA's understanding was that the subject still under discussion was the type of UN assessment mission. Some wanted a technical mission headed by a UN Special Representative, others a delegation of Ambassadors from Geneva missions. We emphasized that this was a non-routine matter for us. In particular, we urged Sri Lanka to reject the Algerian-sponsored amendments. ¶2. (C) Australian DCM contacted us over the weekend and reported that the Dutch Ambassador to Sri Lanka had received a negative signal from Minister for Human Rights Samarasinghe. We agreed to follow up on December 11 with senior-level demarches. DCM called Acting Foreign Secretary Geetha De Silva on December 11 to ask where the GSL stood on the Sudan resolution. De Silva said only that she would check and get back to us. Ambassador then raised the issue in person with Foreign Minister Samaraweera later the same day. De Silva, who was also in the meeting, said that she had been in touch with the Sri Lankan Geneva delegations and "did not see a problem with it." ¶3. (C) COMMENT: Pol Chief will follow up with MFA early on Tuesday to confirm Sri Lanka's final position, if possible. However, the danger remains that Sri Lanka will want to trade votes in order to collect IOUs to ward off a resolution on Sri Lanka in the spring session of HRC. If maneuvering in Geneva results in a "compromise" draft, the Sri Lankan representative to the HRC will likely have the discretion to vote for the replacement text. Any further information on status of the resolution ready by COB Washington time on December 11 will therefore be much appreciated. BLAKE