Reiterating the Sri Lankan government’s position on the establishment of a domestic mechanism to go into alleged war crimes, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera on Tuesday said the shape of international assistance in such mechanism would be discussed and finalised after consultations with all stakeholders.
Emerging from a meeting with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier at his office here, Mr. Samaraweera made it clear that his government “always” welcomed international assistance. There was “no major difference” between the position of the government and that of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. “[There are] one or two areas where we have to find a point of convergence, especially in the type of judicial mechanism we envisage.”
Mr. Steinmeier, who exchanged “views and ideas” with Mr. Samaraweera on the matter, indicated that depending upon deliberations in the UN Human Rights Council, the extent of international assistance would be decided.
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