No need for Sri Lanka to get angry at the expert panel, UN chief says

The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that there is no reason for Sri Lanka to express anger at the Panel of Experts appointed to advise him on Sri Lanka's alleged war crimes.



"There is no reason why (the) Sri Lankan government (is) reacting negatively to my proposal," the Secretary-General has told Reuters in an interview in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"Sri Lanka should take all the measures to make it accountable for all these perpetrators who have committed and violated international human rights and humanitarian law," Ban was quoted.

The UN Chief last month appointed a three-member expert panel to advise him on Sri Lanka's accountability issues regarding any alleged violations of human rights and humanitarian law during the last stage of the three-decade long conflict.

The panel is chaired by Marzuki Darusman, a former Attorney General of Indonesia. Ms. Yasmin Sooka, a member of the South Africa Truth and Reconciliation Commission from 1995-1998 and Steven Ratner of US, a Professor of International Law at University of Michigan are the other two members of the panel.

Sri Lankan vehemently opposed the appointment of the Panel and said it as an unwarranted and unnecessary interference with a sovereign nation.

Ban has said now it was the right time for Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa "to demonstrate his commitment to the values of human rights," Reuters reported.

Russia, China, and the 118-member Non-Aligned Movement have criticized UN Chief's decision to appoint the panel while the US, Britain and Norway have supported it.

Sri Lanka says the interference by the appointment of the panel has potential for exploitation by vested interests hostile to the process of reconciliation taking place in the country.

The Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission appointed by President Rajapaksa will make a most significant contribution to further strengthen the national amity, through a process of restorative justice, the Sri Lankan government says.