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Leading News from Sri Lanka ::
Oct 23, Colombo: All the alleged human right violations cited in the report submitted to the U.S. Congress by the State Department are believed to be credible, a spokesman for the State Department said on Thursday.
Responding to a question from media at the daily press briefing, State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly said the report doesn't attempt to verify all the claims but believes the claims, mostly based on the mostly on the reports from the US Embassy in Colombo and from the NGOs and media in Sri Lanka are credible.
"This report was mandated by the Appropriations Committee. They requested that the Administration report on – I want to get this right here – report on what happened in Sri Lanka during the fighting in the north there. I think that what this is an attempt to do is to – we wanted to lay out all of these credible allegations of human rights violations. But like I say, we don’t try and verify them," Kelley said.
The spokesman said the as a first step U.S. calls on the Government of Sri Lanka to open up the area to international organizations to be able to come in and understand better the facts on the ground and what happened there during the final phases of the conflict.
"And then we call on them to develop the kind of mechanisms that can more thoroughly investigate these many allegations, which are laid out in this report, and then ultimately, as appropriate, bring to justice those who are found guilty," the spokesman elaborated.
"The Government of Sri Lanka has said that they are determined to establish a reconciliation process with the people of the north. But we believe strongly that a very important part of any reconciliation process is accountability, and so that’s what we recommend in the report," he added.
When asked whether there should be an international investigation, the spokesman said the responsibility lies with the Sri Lankan government first to investigate any kind of violations.
"We would first call on the Government of Sri Lanka to identify the appropriate institution to set up this kind of mechanism and go from there," he said.
Mr. Kelly said the report was done in close consultations with the government and lays out some real concerns.
"…We've not done this report in a vacuum. We have consulted quite closely with the Government of Sri Lanka. We've explained to them the parameters of the report and also went into the kind of recommendations that we have. And as I say, we've encouraged them privately as well to investigate these allegations thoroughly and set up this mechanism," he reiterated.
The Sri Lankan government today blasted the report as "unsubstantiated and devoid of corroborative evidence" and said the report fans the flames of secessionism and undo the concerted efforts of the Government and people of Sri Lanka, for rehabilitation and national reconciliation.
The complete Report to Congress on Incidents During the Recent Conflict in Sri Lanka can be found
here.
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