Sri Lanka today appealed to the UN to delay a report into alleged war crimes committed towards the end of its nearly three decades-long civil war so that the new government can carry out an internal probe as it acknowledged that such violations did take place.
Asserting that the new government was not in denial of the violations like the previous regime, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera urged the UN to postpone the publication of the UN investigation report.
"We are in the process of trying to set up this internal domestic mechanism," Samaraweera said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, ahead of his talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry.
He denied assertions that the call for a postponement of the report was an attempt to buy time.
"We are hoping they could hold on to it until our mechanism is in place," he said, adding that the domestic probe would be set up and will be functional in about two months.
Samaraweera is on his first visit to the US after the new government led by Maithripala Sirisena took office last month.
Sirisena defeated Mahinda Rajapaksa who had vehemently resisted cooperation with the UN mandated probe.
President Sirisena, earlier this month, had pledged to work with the UN and promised national reconciliation with the Tamil minority.
"Once the report is finalised, we are hoping they can refer it to our domestic mechanism for action. Unlike the previous government we are not in a state of denial, saying that such violations have not happened. We believe such violations have happened," Samaraweera asserted.
"We are ready to ensure that those who have violated human rights in Sri Lanka will be brought to justice through such a mechanism. But to ensure that it is done in a credible manner we are also looking at technical assistance from the international community," he said.
Sri Lanka has been subject to three UNHRC resolutions in 2012, 2013 and 2014 over alleged rights abuses by government troops during the last phase of the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
The last one prescribed an international probe into the alleged rights violations.
According to UN estimates, more than 40,000 civilians were killed in Lanka during the final phase of the conflict that ended in 2009. The Sri Lankan government disputes the UN figure.
Rajapaksa ruled since 2005 and is credited with ending the LTTE separatist war.
His effort to win an unprecedented third term ended in a disaster with Sirisena, a defector from his own party, toppling him with support from joint opposition, ending a ten-year rule.
