US diplomats heading to Sri Lanka
February 6, 2012 08:38 am
Three American diplomats will travel to Sri Lanka for talks about
alleged civilian casualties during the government’s military campaign to defeat
the Tamil Tigers, an official said, AFP reports.
The visit comes ahead of a United Nations human rights council
meeting in Geneva, which starts later this month, where Washington hopes to
move a resolution pressing Sri Lanka to probe alleged war crimes.
A government source in Colombo, who declined to be named, said US
Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asian Affairs, Robert Blake,
was expected next week.
“The US is mounting pressure on us this time, but we should be
able to get over the difficulties because we have strong support from India,”
the government source said.
A diplomatic source confirmed that Washington was engaging with
Colombo ahead of the Geneva rights council session, which runs from February 27
to March 23.
There was no immediate comment from the US embassy or Sri Lanka’s
external affairs ministry about the latest US initiative to ramp up pressure on
Colombo.
Sri Lanka has managed to avoid censure at previous human rights
council meetings thanks to the backing of Russia and China. India, the island’s
closest neighbour, has also backed Colombo.
Rights groups have said up to 40,000 civilians were killed in the
government’s military campaign to defeat Tamil Tiger rebels, which they
completed in May, 2009.
Sri Lanka denies that a single civilian was killed by its troops.
However, a government-appointed panel, which probed the reasons
behind the failure of a 2002 truce, reported in December that civilians may
have died as a result of military action and called for an independent
investigation, AFP reports.
