US backs Lankan probe of wartime crimes

COLOMBO: The United States said on Wednesday it backed the new Sri Lankan government’s plans for a local inquiry into alleged wartime atrocities, reversing its demand for an international probe.
Washington said that it wants to sponsor a resolution at next month’s UN human rights session that is supportive of the Lankan government’s decision to conduct its own investigation into alleged war crimes.
The announcement by the visiting Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Biswal of a joint resolution with the Sri Lankan government presents a major shift by Washington on the South Asian island nation.
“The United States has announced on Monday in Geneva that it will be offering a resolution in the September session of the Human Rights Council. We have also expressed our hope that it will be a resolution which we hope to offer collaboratively, working with the government of Sri Lanka and with other key stake holders,” Biswal told reporters in Colombo after talks with the new government.
“The failure of past efforts is very much on our minds, but that is why you have to emphasise on building trust.”
The US has led efforts at the UN Human Rights Council for three resolutions against Sri Lanka, with the last one calling for an international probe into the alleged abuses.
But Biswal said there was new optimism for reconciliation over Sri Lanka’s wartime past, after President Maithripala Sirisena ousted longtime strongman Mahinda Rajapakse at elections in January.
Washington had an uneasy relationship with Rajapakse, who staunchly defied Western pressure to investigate allegations of atrocities. Rajapakse had insisted that not a single civilian was killed by troops under his command during the decades-long conflict.