A press statement, issued by the U.S. Embassy in Colombo in response to the disclosure of a secret diplomatic cable on Sri Lanka's accountability issue by a British newspaper, said the United States policy on accountability in Sri Lanka has been made clear many times by the U.S. Ambassador Patricia Butenis, by visiting officials, and through published statements.
"We believe that in cases where allegations of possible violations of human rights have been made, the primary responsibility for investigating them lies with the sovereign national government," it said.
"We have consistently expressed to the Government of Sri Lanka the importance of implementing a credible and independent process through which individuals responsible for violations of international human rights and humanitarian law are held accountable for their actions," the statement continued.
Butenis, in a cable, dated 15 January 2010 and classified as 'secret', has informed her government that one of the reasons that there was an unsurprisingly lack of attention to accountability is that country's senior political and military leadership are directly responsible for the alleged war crimes.
In the cable, received by the Guardian newspaper from the WikiLeaks and published it on Wednesday, Butenis has held the country's senior civilian and military leadership, including President Rajapaksa and his brothers and opposition candidate General Fonseka, responsible for the alleged war crimes.
The Embassy today strongly condemned the disclosure of the alleged State Department cable on Sri Lanka.
"The United States strongly condemns the illegal disclosure of any classified information. It threatens our national security, it undermines our efforts to work with other countries to solve shared problems, and it puts people's lives in danger. It is an irresponsible and destructive act," the U.S. Embassy said in its statement.
The statement said that as a matter of policy, the U.S. Department of State does not comment on materials, including classified documents, which may have been leaked.
"Although we cannot speak to the authenticity of any documents appearing in the press, we can speak to the diplomatic community's practice of cable writing. Cables reflect the internal day-to-day analysis and candid assessments that feed foreign relations deliberations. These cables are often preliminary and incomplete interpretations of events, and they should not be seen as having standing on their own or as representing U.S. policy."
The Embassy welcomed President Rajapaksa's appointment of a Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).
"Although the work of that LLRC is ongoing, the Government of Sri Lanka has established an Inter-Agency Committee, which met for the first time last week, whose purpose is to implement the LLRC's recommendations. We believe it is important that the LLRC's and the Inter-Agency Committee's work, in consultation with Sri Lankan Tamils and other minority communities, address reconciliation and the needs of the citizens of Sri Lanka who were, after all, the primary victims of this long and terrible conflict," the press statement concluded.
However, the Ambassador has recognized that while regrettable the accountability for alleged crimes during the later stages of the war has not been a top priority for most Tamils in Sri Lanka and instead they have focused on securing greater rights and freedoms, resolving the IDP question, and improving economic prospects in the war-ravaged and former LTTE-occupied areas.
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