A day after United States envoy Nisha Desai Biswal warned Sri Lanka about its “frustrating” pace of reconciliation, the Sri Lankan government said the U.S. had a desire to believe the worst of Sri Lanka, to justify punitive action against the country.
In a statement released by the External Affairs Ministry here on Sunday, the Sri Lankan government observed that Ms. Biswal’s claims pertaining to the pace of implementation of the LLRC [Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission], allegations of religious intolerance or insufficient progress in addressing reconciliation and accountability, were unsubstantiated.
“Preposterous”
Ministry spokesperson Rodney M. Perera said: “They have been as preposterous as a visiting U.S. official’s statement of being convinced of a figure of 40,000 missing persons based on a purported census of 2008 carried out by a civil society institution.”