Sri Lanka says international war crimes probe would bring 'chaos'
Source: Reuters
(Reuters) - An international inquiry into war crimes in Sri Lanka would bring "chaos," and the government's national reconciliation process must be given several more years to work, a top aide to Sri Lanka's president said on Monday.
Lalith Weeratunga, in Washington to lobby against calls for such an inquiry, said Sri Lanka needed at least five years from the July 2012 date the government regards as the start of its reconciliation process for the effort to take root.
"After 26 years of conflict ... we want to make it a sustainable peace. It's a very delicate, delicate process. Reconciliation is not a task that can be achieved in a day or two," said Weeratunga, who is secretary to President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Sri Lanka's top civil servant.
The final few months of Sri Lanka's long civil war in 2009 were by far the bloodiest, and both the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels blame each other for the deaths of tens of thousands of mainly Tamil civilians during that period.
The United Nations has called on Sri Lanka to punish those in the military involved in atrocities, and U.S. Embassy officials in Colombo say Washington plans to introduce a resolution calling for an international investigation at the March session of the U.N. Human Rights Council.
Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/01/27/uk-srilanka-warcrimes-usa-idUKBREA0Q1PA20140127
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