Ranil urged US Govt to pressurise Sri Lanka - Prof Peiris

Irangika Range, Sandasen Marasinghe and Disna Mudalige

External Affairs Minister Prof GL Peiris told Parliament yesterday that Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has requested the United States to pressurise the Sri Lankan Government to publish an 'Incident Report' on alleged human rights violations and that war crimes took place during the last phase of the humanitarian operations to rescue people from the LTTE.

Making a speech during his Ministry's vote during the committee stage of budget 2010, the Minister said this request by the Opposition Leader had been published in the US State Department publication titled Sri Lanka:

Re-charting US strategy after the war prepared by the Committee on Foreign Relations of the US. The committee working on after the war situation has recorded their observations in this report. He quoted the following paragraphs from the report: "Many Sri Lankan Government officials seemed surprised by the barrage of international criticism and intense public scrutiny they received following the war.

They had expected instead, praise for defeating a notorious terrorist group which pioneered suicide bombing techniques and assassinated Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 and Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993 and space to make to a post conflict environment.

The Opposition Leader takes a different view. United National Party and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said the United States was on the right track in publishing the "Incident Report" and should "keep pressure on the Government."