Interestingly, it was a US-moved resolution that called for an global probe into alleged war crimes during the almost three decade-long civil war that ended in 2009 and was adopted past year in the 47-member UN Human Rights Council.
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“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”, she said.
But Ms Biswal said there was new optimism for reconciliation over Sri Lanka’s wartime past, after President Maithripala Sirisena ousted longtime strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa at elections in January. Sri Lanka’s civil war, which pitted government forces against rebels seeking independence for the nation’s Tamil minority, killed up to 100,000 people, according to widely accepted estimates.
Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had made it clear that an global investigation is not possible because Lanka has not signed the Rome Statute to accept the jurisdiction of the worldwide Criminal Court (ICC).
Nisha Biswal, U.S. assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs, is due to arrive on Tuesday, the foreign ministry said.
The US announced on Wednesday it would support the Sri Lankan government in creating a credible domestic process to address accountability and reconciliation.
The pro-Sri Lanka resolution at UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) will come even as the body looks to discuss a highly critical report on alleged war crimes committed by both the government troops and the LTTE during the last phase of the war in 2009.
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which has been insisting on an worldwide investigation, said after meeting Biswal and Malinowski, that it will accept a domestic investigation if it has global participation.
Rajapakse, who suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Sirisena in January’s presidential election, will sit on the opposition benches along with a dissident group of loyalists.
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In contrast to the Rajapaksa administration, the Sirisena government has improved its relations with the US. It was signified in the visit in May by US Secretary of State John Kerry who became the first US Secretary of State to make an official visit to Colombo since 1972.
