R.K.RADHAKRISHNAN December 20, 2011
The United States has urged the Sri Lankan Government to fulfill all of the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation report and also address those issues that the report did not cover.
“We’re still studying the full report, I do have to say that we have concerns that the report, nonetheless, does not fully address all the allegations of serious human rights violations that occurred in the final phase of the conflict. So this leaves questions about accountability,” U.S. department of State spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters in response to a question in Washington DC on Monday.
To another question, she said that the Sri Lankan government’s preliminary action plan did not provide the kind of detailed roadmap that the U.S. had hoped to see for fulfilling all of the Commission’s recommendations.
Rajapaksa view
The US State Department was unfair in the observations made about the government's response to the report of Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) said President Mahinda Rajapaksa addressing select Sri Lankan editors at Temple Trees on Tuesday morning.
President Rajapaksa said that on the matter of accountability a clear statement on how the government intends acting on LLRC recommendations was made by the Leader of the House when the report was tabled in Parliament.
Mr. Rajapaksa also said that there is an unfair selectivity in dealing with Sri Lanka on this matter by referring only to last phase of a conflict that went on for nearly 30 years.
Some countries were having commissions sitting for several years on armed conflicts caused by them, he said.
Mr. Rajapaksa also observed that while raising issues of accountability with Sri Lanka, the US had recently brought provisions in law to detain persons for any length of time outside the normal law.
Explaining Sri Lankan position further, Minister of External Affairs Prof. G. L. Peiris reiterated that the Leader of the House Hon. Nimal Siripala de Silva had clearly stated the manner in which the government would act on these matters.
"There was no question of the government trying to evade matters of accountability that had been mentioned in LLRC recommendations, as this matter had been clearly explained by the Leader of the House when tabling the report in Parliament," Prof. Peiris said.
On the alleged absence of a comprehensive plan for implementation of the report, Prof. Peiris said this criticism was not justified as the focus of this comment was confined only to the closing stages of the conflict.
There was a lack of a uniform approach on these matters with regard to Sri Lanka, Prof. Peiris said. Standards that are being required from Sri Lanka are not demanded from places where other conflicts have taken place.
It is necessary that the values and standards in relation to such conflicts that are being demanded from Sri Lanka should apply to all, the Minister said.
