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Sri Lanka has not asked the UN for help for the Special Bureau of Reconciliation it is setting up to deal with the legacy of the civil war that ravaged the island nation, a UN spokesman has said. |
The spokesman said in answer to a reporter’s question that while the UN’s department of political affairs provides technical expertise requested by member states, it “has not received any request from Sri Lanka to provide assistance to their reconciliation bureau”.
Sri Lanka has opposed a probe into “alleged serious violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes by both parties in Sri Lanka” that was mandated by the UN Human Rights Council in March.
Instead, Sri Lanka said it was creating a Special Bureau for Reconciliation.
In a statement at a UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva on Thursday, the United States said a delayed response by the international community resulted in decaying human rights situations in troubled nations like Sri Lanka, which is accused of human rights abuses during its military campaign against the LTTE.
Issued during a panel discussion on the role of prevention in promotion and protection of human rights, it said the most troubling aspect of recent atrocities is the concern that they could have been
prevented.
The US delegation noted the failure of the international community to act in Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur, Sri Lanka and Syria.
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 in 2009. The Sri Lankan government
disputes the UN figure.
During the session, the US commended the Rights Up Front initiative of UN chief Ban Ki-moon, which recognises the crucial need to respond early to developing situations in order to prevent rights violations and potential atrocities.
Noting that the UN system on the ground in Sri Lanka had failed to respond adequately to a worsening human disaster, the UN in 2010 set up its own internal inquiry into the conduct of its operations in the island.
Sri Lanka, however, dismissed the findings of the panel headed by Marzuki Darusman of
Indonesia.