Lanka has no escape from rights accountability: UNHRC

Sri Lanka must keep its focus on fulfilling its obligations to provide justice and accountability for the grave human rights violations stemming from nearly three decades of civil war in the island nation, the UN Human Rights High Commissioner Michele Bachelet said on Wednesday.

The UNHRC last week allowed two more years for the country to implement the commitments in the 2015 resolution, which pledged to investigate the alleged atrocities by both the Lankan military and the LTTE during the civil war.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which led the separatist war for a separate Tamil homeland for three decades in the island nation, was finally crushed by the Lankan military in 2009 with the death of the rebels' supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Bachelet also expressed her disappointment over a senior Sri Lankan official misrepresenting her discussion of the recent UN Human Rights Office report on Sri Lanka with a government delegation attending the Human Rights Council in Geneva on March 20.

"I am deeply disappointed by the spin that has been put on my discussion with the Sri Lankan government delegation," she said referring to comments made by the delegation member Suren Raghavan that Bachelet had admitted certain facts in her report were wrong and had admonished UNHRC officials to be more responsible and cautious.

"Neither of the these claims are true," Bachelet said in a statement.

"The Sri Lankan Government should now refocus its efforts on fulfilling its obligation to provide justice and accountability for the grave human rights violations and abuses that took place during the conflict that ended in 2009, and honour its commitments to establish the truth about what happened and to promote reconciliation," she added.