UN rights chief discusses accountability issues with Rajapaksa

UN rights chief Navi Pillai, who is here to probe alleged war crimes by the army during the ethnic conflict with the LTTE, today held talks Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa about the country's progress in human rights and accountability issues.
Rajapaksa's office said Pillay expressed happiness over the post-conflict progress achieved by Sri Lanka. "It was very very visible to me in the North how you have invested in reconstruction," a presidential release quoted the UN Human Rights Commissioner as saying.
Rajapaksa told Pillay that there was a belief among many Sri Lankans that the UN is biased in the way it deals with countries.

Rajapaksa, however, has urged those who criticise the UNHRC not to prejudge the report that she is due to present next month. Rajapaksa's Sinhala nationalist allies accuse the UNHRC of being a tool of US.
Pillay's week-long visit has come under stiff protest from within government ranks. A section of the cabinet has dubbed Pillay an agent of the West which is out to undermine Sri Lanka as a nation.
Prior to meeting Rajapaksa, Pillay, a South African national of Indian Tamil origin, met with the country's main Tamil party TNA.

"We drew her attention to the joint declaration between President Rajapaksa and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon," M A Sumanthiran, a senior TNA leader, said.

He said the Tamil party drew Pillay's attention to pledges given by Rajapaksa for independent investigations into alleged rights abuses, resettlement of the conflict displaced and a political solution for the Tamils.
"All these should have been implemented within six months (of end to the conflict in 2009)", Sumanthiran said.
She also called on leader of opposition Ranil Wickremesinghe.
She also visited former conflict zones in North and East to get firsthand information that will be presented during the next sessions of the UNHRC in September.
Pillay's visit came following two successive UNHRC resolutions on Sri Lanka moved by US and backed by India. Both resolutions urged the country for expeditious implementation of the Lesson Learnt and Reconciliation Commission's recommendations for reconciliation with the Tamil minority.

As many as 40,000 people were reportedly killed in the last months of the conflict between Sri Lankan troops and the LTTE rebels fighting for an independent homeland.