Ban says finding not complete

4 February 2011 12:23 pm

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon today said that his Expert Committee on Sri Lanka has not been able to complete the initial stage of its investigations and they are still negotiating with Sri Lanka.

Answering to a question at the Oxford University in UK, Mr. Moon said “I share your concerns and it concerned me at the time when the Sri Lankan government was fighting and fight coming to an end. I visited Sri Lanka twice and I had very serious talks with the president and the government leaders of Sri Lanka. After a lengthy, very difficult and almost turbulent conversations and also negotiations I was able to convince the Sri Lankan government that a group of experts will be established. It seems just now it has not been able to complete their initial stage and they are still negotiating with Sri Lanka.

“Accountability whatever and wherever it has happened should be verified and any perpetrators of crimes should be held accountable. That is the basic principle of justice.”

“Sometime some wonder how to build justice and political power and political stability. Political stability is sometimes important but if it is not accompanied by justice the political stability cannot be sustainable. Likewise if there was no political stability we may not be able to carry out justice. So as far as we have the opportunity, political stability and justice should go hand in hand. And that is what I have been doing to achieve even in Sri Lanka and I will continue to do that.”