Ban spoke on Aluthgama with Mahinda

Monday, 6 October 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had raised concerns over the Aluthgama incident when he met President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the UN last weekend.

Ban’s spokesman Farhan Haq said the UN Chief had raised his concerns with the incident of religious violence that took place in June and noted that he counted on the President’s leadership to keep reaching out to minorities. Haq said Ban also wanted Sri Lanka to engage patiently and faithfully with the United Nations, including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The Government has been maintaining opposition to the investigation on the war in Sri Lanka by a team appointed by OHCHR. Several countries had, during the recent UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session, urged the Government to cooperate with OHCHR in the investigation. Farhan Haq said the Secretary-General, at his meeting with the President, had encouraged Sri Lanka to continue making progress on the post-war agenda, including dialogue, inclusive governance, reconciliation and accountability issues. In a statement released following the meeting held last weekend the President’s office had said that Ban had acknowledged the progress that has been made in Sri Lanka in the years after the war and expressed his optimism that the remaining challenges would also be overcome with this type of political leadership. President Rajapaksa had also invited the UN Chief to make another visit to Sri Lanka to assess the development since his last visit to Sri Lanka. (Colombo Gazette)