Washington: Sri Lankan government should
take advantage of a UN report on 'war crimes' to complete what
it has undertaken, the United States has said, referring to a
reconciliation panel appointed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
"The Sri Lankan Government has taken some steps to
address accountability. We believe it should take advantage of
the UN's report and the UN's offer of these panel of experts,"
State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters.
"It would be helpful to take advantage of their
expertise in order to complete this process," he said,
responding to questions about the report by a UN panel which
says there are "credible allegations" that thousands of
civilians were killed towards the end of the war with LTTE.
"The panel found credible allegations, which if
proven, indicate that a wide range of serious violations of
international humanitarian law and international human rights
law were committed both by the Government of Sri Lanka and the
LTTE, some of which would amount to war crimes," the report
said.
Meanwhile, the New York-based Transnational Government
of Tamil Eelam has announced that it will take steps to
counter Sri Lankan government's plans to organize several
activities against the UN report on Sri Lanka.
In a statement, the group said it will set up an
expert panel to study the Sri Lanka's anti-UN report steps and
to produce a counter-report challenging government's findings.
"It will meet different governments to counter Sri
Lankan government's propaganda against the UN report. It will
also campaign for the UN to refer Sri Lanka to the
International Criminal Court's Prosecutor as well to organize
an international commission of inquiry as suggested by the
report," it said.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, April 20, 2011, 16:42