President invites Ban-ki Moon to revisit Lanka in talks in Shanghai
Thursday, 22 May 2014 02:09
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President Mahinda Rajapaksa and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met last afternoon on the sidelines of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA).
President Rajapaksa brie-fed the Secretary-General on the post-war developments that have taken place in Sri Lanka since Ban’s visit to the country in 2009 and progress in a variety of different sectors. The President urged the Secretary-General to make another visit to personally see the developments. The President also updated Ban on the progress of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), pointing out that Sri Lanka has implemented about 30% of the recommendations so far.
“I appreciate your leadership to implement the LLRC,” Ban said, while also expressing his appreciation of the President’s commitment to the democratic process.
President Rajapaksa also explained that addressing certain matters such as land ownership will take time, but that Sri Lanka remains committed to the LLRC process.
The President also informed the Secretary-General that Sri Lanka remains fully committed to implementing a domestic procedure to look into alleged violations that may have taken place during the war.
The President said an international inquiry is not in keeping “with the vision of our people” and made reference to the contradictions in Paragraphs 2 and 10 of the last resolution of the U.N. Human Rights Council.
Sri Lanka continues to work with the United Nations system, the President said.
Pointing out that Sri Lanka has been making a great deal of progress, Ban also congratulated Sri Lanka on the successful conclusion of the World Conference on Youth (WCY) 2014.
Minister of External Affairs Prof. G.L. Peiris, President’s Chief of Staff Gamini Senarath, Secretary to the Ministry of External Affairs Kshenuka Senewiratne and Sri Lanka’s Ambassador in China Ranjith Uyangoda were also present at the discussion.
