China urges International Community not to complicate Sri Lanka issue

China said Saturday that it believes the Sri Lankan government and people will properly handle problems concerning its civil war and urged the international community not to complicate the issue.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei made the remarks when asked to comment on a panel report on armed conflicts in Sri Lanka published by the United Nations on Monday, reports China’s Xinhua Agency.

Hong said in a statement that China has already noticed the publication of the report. He said Sri Lanka has already set up its own institutes to investigate relevant issues.

“The Chinese side is confident that the Sri Lankan government and people are able to properly address all relevant issues,” Hong said.

He said China hopes that the international community could provide support and assistance to such efforts by the Sri Lankan government.

“We hope that the international community could help develop a favorable external environment for the Sri Lankan government to stabilize the country’s internal situation and accelerate economic growth, and avoid taking measures that could further complicate the issue,” Hong said. 

Despite the opposition of Colombo, the United Nations (UN) Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka published a report on armed conflicts in the country on Monday. The report says that activities by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the government in the final months of Sri Lanka’s civil war might amount to war crimes.

Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Ministry said Wednesday that the UN panel report on the country is fundamentally flawed in many respects and has divisive influence to the country that has just concluded its decades old conflict.

Tens of thousands of civilians were killed in almost three decades of civil war that erupted in 1983 between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE, who had launched a separatist insurgency fighting for an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east before they were defeated in 2009.