The involvement of foreign judges, prosecutors and investigators is a must for a credible Sri Lankan probe into war crimes charges, says Keith Harper, US Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva.
In a terse but strong tweet on Tuesday, Harper said: “Credibility of any accountability mechanism requires involvement of foreign judges etc. That has not changed and will not change.”
The US envoy was reacting to Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena’s statement in an interview to the BBC Sinhalese service on January 21 that there is no room for foreigners’ involvement in the proposed judicial mechanism to investigate and try war crimes cases because Lanka has the required experts and that outsiders should not get involved in Lanka’s domestic affairs. (The New Indian Express)
The United States has told Sri Lanka that the disposition of the Iranian naval vessel IRIS Bushehr and its crew is a matter for Colombo to resolve under its own laws and international obligations, while signalling it is in active talks with Sri Lanka to contain Iran’s threat to US interests.
The Editor, of Lankaenews website Sandaruwan Senadheera was arrested at the Bandaranaike International Airport while returning from UK.
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