The minister was responding to queries raised by 'Sri Lanka Mirror' over the international pressure raised with regard to the arrest of 10 Tamil nationals at Katunayaka airport and the push to take legal action over the detention of Jeyakumari Balendran.

It is said that although President Maithripala Sirisena has informed military intelligence units to release Jeyakumari before his Jaffna tour if there were no charges against her, military intelligence units have strongly opposed this.

Also, on the same day where the Foreign minister was holding talks with officials of the Geneva Human Rights Council, Murugesu Bagirahi who had arrived from France with her 8 year old daughter to visit her mother was arrested by the TID at the Katunayaka airport while she was leaving. She was not arrested despite being in the country for several weeks.

Addressing the High-level Segment of the 28th Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the Foreign minister said that 'although the Government has achieved much during its 48 days in office, there are many more hurdles to overcome including bureaucratic bottlenecks, entrenched attitudes resulting from the practices of the previous regime and extremist elements that attempt to derail the Government’s initiatives...'