The Assistant US Trade Representative for South Asia Michael Delaney visited Colombo to meet with government, trade and business officials ahead of an upcoming set of Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) talks in Washington.

Sri Lanka’s "insecure, reactionary and muddled thinking,” does not do justice to the Sinhalese race’s great and long history, nor does it do justice to the gentle, compassionate and moderate majority of this country, said Sri Lanka’s foreign affairs minister Mangala Samaraweera.

Highlighting rejections of proposals for a bridge between the Tamil North-East of Sri Lanka and the South of India and further trade agreements , he added,

The British Tamils Forum expressed serious concern at the recent statements by the Sri Lankan president that refuted alleged war crimes and the need for international participation in an accountability process.

The statement read,

“It is important to recognize that these statements come at a time when Tamil victims and communities continue to have little to no confidence in the Sri Lankan government’s political will due to the government’s failure to address critical on-going human rights issues including the military occupation of the North-East, reports of on-going torture, continued illegal land acquisition, and the detention of political prisoners.  The stance against international involvement espoused by the President and Prime Minister will only serve to further undermine the confidence of Tamil victims and communities, and is completely unacceptable in light of the UNHRC resolution they co-sponsored.”

See full statement below.

The Sri Lankan government on Tuesday said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights' visit to the island this week is unrelated to the UN Human Rights Council's resolution on accountability in the country, The Hindu reported.