 Photograph: Sri Lankan Ministry of External Affairs |
UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon discussed human rights, accountability and reconciliation with the Sri Lanka’s Minister of External Affairs Mangala Samaraweera, outlining them as “critical priorities” for Sri Lanka on Friday.
The meeting at UN headquarters in New York comes after Mr Samaraweera visited the UK and US, where he announced publicly that Sri Lanka was seeking to delay the findings of a United Nations investigation into mass atrocities on the island.
Speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, UN diplomatic sources said Mr Samaraweera had made the same call to the UN Secretary General. Inner City Press reported that Sri Lanka's outgoing Ambassador to the United Nations Palitha Kohona was also present at the meeting.
An official statement from the UN did not mention the report, which is due to be released at the UN Human Rights Council next month, stating that
“The Minister of External Affairs and the Secretary-General addressed critical priorities for Sri Lanka, including especially human rights, accountability and reconciliation.”
See our earlier posts:
Sri Lanka asks UN to delay report into mass atrocities against Tamils (12 Feb 2015)