Sri Lanka says US lawmakers call for rights probe unwarranted

Sri Lanka has said that a call made by a group of United States lawmakers for an international probe to investigate alleged human right violations during the last stages of Sri Lanka's war with the Tamil rebels was "unwarranted".

Local media reports quoting a Ministry of External Affairs spokesman said the Sri Lankan government has already set in place a mechanism for the purpose.

"We have a robust domestic mechanism in the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton herself has said the Commission must be given time and space to complete its task," Ministry of External Affairs Director General of Public Communication and Spokesperson Bandula Jayasekara has told the Daily Mirror.

In separate letters to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 17 senators and 30 members of the House of Representatives have called for the United States to seek a United Nations role investigating the final stages of the war, an AFP report said Saturday.

The senators in their letter have called for a parallel international mechanism to verify the findings of Sri Lanka's Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission appointed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to probe the events during the last seven years of war.

"Without a means of verification, any findings will lack credibility and true accountability," the senators' letter has stated.

In June this year during a meeting with Sri Lanka's External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris, Secretary Clinton has welcomed the appointment of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission and said that the United States strongly supports political and ethnic reconciliation in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka yesterday said that it will allow the Panel of Experts, appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General to probe the accountability issues of Sri Lanka's war, to meet the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission if the Panel made a request.