US urges Sri Lanka to go beyond implementing LLRC recommendations

Washington, DC: The US on Monday urged the Sri Lankan Government not only to fulfill all of the recommendations made by the Lessons Learns and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) but also to address the accountability issues that the LLRC did not cover in its report.

Responding to media queries on the LLRC report at the daily press briefing on Monday, Deputy Spokesperson of the US State Department Victoria Nuland said the US has concerns that the report prepared by the Lessons Learns and Reconciliation Commission does not fully address all the allegations of serious human rights violations that occurred in the final phase of the conflict.  “So this leaves questions about accountability and - for those allegations, and so we urge the Sri Lankan Government not only to fulfill all of the recommendations of the report as it stands, but also to address those issues that the report did not cover,” the Spokesperson said.

Nuland said the US, while still studying the full report, commends the work of the LLRC for addressing a number of the crucial areas of concern to Sri Lankans.

“In particular, the report recognises and makes substantive recommendations in the areas of reconciliation, devolution of authority, demilitarisation, rule of law, media freedom, disappearances, human rights violations,” she noted.

The Spokesperson said the US has seen the government’s preliminary action plan on human rights but the plan does not provide a detailed road map the US expected to see for fulfilling all of the Commission’s recommendations.  “Those are the things that we are, in our private conversation, urging them to continue to work on, implementation of the recommendations in the report, and addressing those gaps that the report left,” the Spokesperson reiterated.

When questioned about a time period for Sri Lanka to implement the LLRC recommendations, Nuland said the US is expecting a response from the Sri Lankan government to the concerns expressed by the US in the first instance.  “We’re looking to a report – a response from the Sri Lankan Government to these concerns that we’ve expressed and that a number of Sri Lankans have expressed, to hear what their proposed timetable, as I said, their proposed roadmap is for re-mediating these issues,” the State Department official said.

However, the US ruled out an independent, international probe into the final phase of the war that ended in May 2009 saying that the position of the US remains that, “it is better for Sri Lankans to take these issues themselves and address them fully.”