Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday that he wishes to attend the next session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, scheduled to begin in September, the Lankan government’s website said.

The September session of the UNHRC is of critical importance to the Sirisena government because it had promised to launch, by September 2015, a national investigation into alleged war crimes committed in the last phase of Eelam War IV.

After Sirisena was elected Lankan President in January, the US and its allies had got the UN to postpone to September the presentation of its preliminary investigative report on war crimes in Lanka, on the condition that Lanka sets up a credible domestic investigative mechanism by September. If Sirisena is going to participate in the UNHRC session in September, it means that he is confident of starting the investigations by then.

But so far, there is no sign of such a mechanism, though there is the Maxwell Paranagama Commission on Disappearances which had been asked to investigate war crimes also in 2014, when Mahinda Rajapaksa was President. The Paranagama Commission has already submitted its preliminary report on disappearances and has been asked to continue.

Electoral Reforms

According to the government’s official website, the UN Secretary General told Sirisena that he is expecting the enactment of the 20th Constitutional Amendment embodying electoral reforms.

Sirisena is committed to enacting the 20th Amendment and had publicly stated on Thursday that parliament would be dissolved immediately after the 20th amendment is passed.

But his partner in government, the United National Party (UNP), the small parties and parties of the minorities, are against it.
(The New Indian Express)