Colombo: A top US official was in Sri Lanka
on Monday to meet government officials, civil society members and
other stake holders amid an ongoing row over a UN panel's
report implicating the government in war crimes during the
last phase of the anti-LTTE offensive.
Robert O Blake, the US Assistant Secretary of State
for South and Central Asia is the first US official to arrive
here in the midst of the heated row over the UN Secretary
General's advisory panel report.
Blake, who arrived here today on a three-day visit
will meet with government officials, civil society
representatives and political leaders.
The three-member panel report which accused both Sri
Lankan government and the LTTE of war crimes has been
dismissed by Sri Lanka as biased and flawed.
Sri Lanka accuses the US and the West of taking the
lead in the panel's work in order to undermine Sri Lanka's
victory over terrorism.
Sri Lankan government allies have been targeting US
and other western nations of using the UN system as a tool to
achieve their imperialist designs after Sri Lanka ended LTTE's
three-decade-old campaign.
Blake, a former US Ambassador here, in recent weeks
was targeted by the pro-government media here for his meetings
with the pro-LTTE Tamil diaspora groups whom Sri Lanka says
have provided Ban-ki Moon's panel with unverified evidence to
implicate the government.
PTI
First Published: Monday, May 02, 2011, 22:46