Sri Lankan envoy says UN warned of possible report leak

Sri Lanka's top ranking envoy to the United Nations has said that the Sri Lankan government was warned by UN about the possibility of leakage of Expert Panel report.

Palitha Kohona, Sri Lanka's Permanente Representative to the UN has told India's PTI news agency that the UN Secretariat has warned the Sri Lankan government of a possible leak.

"The UN Secretariat told the government that it was concerned that the report might be leaked because everything leaks from the Secretariat," Kohona has told PTI.

UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq has refuted the claim. "We have no reason to believe that the leak came from the secretariat," he has said.

Sri Lankan daily, The Island, published a large portion of the report handed over to the UN Chief Ban Ki-moon on April 12 by the three-member panel. The UN has shared a copy with the Sri Lankan government before it is to be made public.

The UN said it will make the report public this week and expected the Sri Lankan government to release a formal response with it.