US to move resolution on Lanka during UNHRC session

Washington/Geneva: The US is set to move a new resolution against Sri Lanka at the current session of the UN Human Rights Council for its alleged war crimes, asking the country to promote reconciliation and accountability. “The resolution will ask the Government of Sri Lanka to follow through on its own commitments to its people, including implementing the constructive recommendations from the report by Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission,” State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters on Friday. [caption id=“attachment_645856” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] The US had introduced a similar resolution last year. “It will build on the 2012 resolution, which called on Sri Lanka to do more to promote reconciliation and accountability,” he said. Meanwhile, the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon in Geneva told reporters that he has consistently underlined the critical importance of addressing accountability in Sri Lanka through a genuine and comprehensive national process achieving national reconciliation. “Last week in New York I have received the Japanese ambassador who led the accountability assessment mission to Sri Lanka where representatives of Bangladesh, Nigeria, Rumania, Sri Lanka and a Colombia University professor participated in an observation project to Sri Lanka last December,” he said at a news conference. “I highlighted the importance for the Government of Sri Lanka to work constructively with the international community towards that end, " Ban said. As the US and UN voiced their concern over human rights situation in the country, the Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services yesterday affirmed its ‘B+’ long-term and ‘B’ short-term sovereign credit ratings on Sri Lanka. “We affirmed the ratings to reflect our view of Sri Lanka’s weak external liquidity, a moderately high and increasing net external liability position. “Political institutions that lack transparency and independence are a further rating weakness,” it said. PTI