13 May 2011 00:48
By Kelum Bandara
The Japanese government has asked Sri Lanka to work towards national reconciliation and fulfil its accountability while maintaining close consultations with the United Nations, an official said yesterday.
Responding to a Daily Mirror email request for comments on the UN Advisory Panel Report, Japan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry Deputy Media Secretary Hidenobu Sobashima said his country would closely observe the responses by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
“Japan expects the Sri Lankan government to make concrete efforts towards national reconciliation through its domestic process of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission while maintaining close consultations with the UN.
Countries such as India, China and Russia, which Sri Lanka considers its friends, have made statements on the report described by Sri Lanka as the controversial Darusman report.
India has said it would be studying the report while China said on Saturday that it believed the Sri Lankan government and the people would carefully handle the problems arising from the civil war and urged the international community to desist from complicating the issue.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei had made the remarks when asked by the media to comment on the advisory panel report published last week on the armed conflict in Sri Lanka. External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris is expected to visit India on Monday and China on May 24.
DM
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