UN says Sri Lanka did not implement its proposals
- Sunday, 13 October 2013
The United Nations has said it had continuously pushed for safe zones and at times for the fighting to be suspended during the final stages of the war in Sri Lanka, but the concepts were not implemented in full.
Associate Spokesperson for the UN Secretary General, Farhan Haq has said that the UN had at the time made every effort to push for greater safety for the civilian population.
“I would just refer you to the statements we put out at the time which did in fact call for corridors for peace; places where essentially combat could be halted in order to allow for people to flee from the fighting. Each situation is different and the statements are different, but yes, we did try to call for places where people could be safe,” he has told the daily UN press briefing.
“There was a proposal, as you know, there were proposals both for safe zones as well as for days when the fighting would be halted. As you know, many of those concepts did not work out or be implemented the way that we had wanted them to be, but I’d just refer you to the statements which were part of our effort to push for greater safety for the civilian population. And of course, you have seen what our follow-up reports have said also,” he has added.
“There was a proposal, as you know, there were proposals both for safe zones as well as for days when the fighting would be halted. As you know, many of those concepts did not work out or be implemented the way that we had wanted them to be, but I’d just refer you to the statements which were part of our effort to push for greater safety for the civilian population. And of course, you have seen what our follow-up reports have said also,” he has added.
