US to obtain UN backing for Sri Lanka’s domestic war crimes investigation

* Says SL’s changed attitude needs to be acknowledged

by Zacki Jabbar-August 26, 2015, 9:56 pm 

The US said yesterday that it had decided to move a resolution at next month’s United Nations Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva calling on member states to support Sri Lanka’s independent domestic probe into allegations of war crimes leveled against its previous government and LTTE.

Visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Nisha Biswal, speaking to a group of journalists in Colombo, said that the US decision stems from a change of attitude by the new Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration to constructively engage the international community having recognized that they were an integral part of it.

Biswal observed that Tom Malinowski, who was US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour and she had, after meeting President Maithripala Srisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and other government leaders over the last two days, realised that there was a genuine commitment on their part to addressing reconciliation and rehabilitation issues aimed at uniting all communities in a such a manner that they could move forward as one nation.

The US resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council would be moved after the Council released its delayed report on an inquiry that it had conducted into charges of war crimes against the previous government and LTTE, which was earlier due to be presented at its March sessions, she said.