During his visit to New York on May 23-24, Prof. Peiris met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and a range of senior UN officials, including Chef de Cabinet Vijay Nambiar and Under Secretary General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe.
In a statement, the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka in New York said the Minister had emphasized that the Commission of Inquiry has been given wide powers, is constituted of eminent members, and has been provided adequate resources to perform its task.
In these circumstances, there is no reason to doubt the ability of the Commission to discharge its mandate adequately and satisfactorily, the Minister argued. He said it was important to allow space for the Commission to perform its functions without being "pressured unnecessarily by external elements".
While noting that other governments including the United States had welcomed the appointment of the Commission, as similar mechanisms had been useful in other post-conflict situations, Prof. Peiris added that the ground situation has changed substantially in the last few weeks, making any outside intervention or the appointment of an extraneous panel unnecessary.
The Mission meanwhile said that Sri Lanka has a rich, centuries-long judicial history and the Commissioners could be expected to conform to the highest judicial standards. The proposal to conduct international investigations or to appoint panels would duplicate the work of the Commission and would elicit a negative political reaction within Sri Lanka, it said.
The Minister also explained to UN officials the measures to be taken to meet the Government's reconciliation goals following the successful defeat of a terrorist group that was considered invincible. He said elections have been held in all Provinces except in the North and for the national Parliament, and the government was actively reaching out to minorities.
Furthermore, almost 300,000 displaced people are now back in their homes; over 8,000 adult combatants will be treated as victims, rehabilitated and returned to their homes; child combatants are being returned to their families; and extensive development work has been carried out in the North and the East to ensure that the people of these areas who were treated as a human shield by the LTTE and herded into a small combat zone by the terrorists will be able to resume their lives and become economically active again.
Prof. Peiris now travels to Washington DC for additional meetings with US authorities, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Permanent Representative to the UN Dr. Palitha Kohona, Deputy Permanent Representative Bandula Jayasekara, and Counselor Maxwell Keegel accompanied the Minister at these meetings.
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