COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A Sri Lankan government minister criticized a United Nations resolution that calls on the island nation to thoroughly investigate war crimes allegedly committed during its civil war, saying Friday that it attempts to divide the country.

The comments by Dalas Alahapperuma, minister of youth affairs, came a day after the U.N. Human Rights Commission approved the U.S.-backed resolution. The resolution followed a U.N. report alleging Sri Lanka’s government may be to blame for tens of thousands of civilian deaths during the military campaign to defeat the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.