Sri Lanka invites UN chief to witness post war developments

The Sri Lankan Government on Wednesday invited UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to visit the country and see for himself the post war developments, the President's office said.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa extended the invitation when he met the UN chief in China on the sidelines of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA).

President Rajapaksa briefed the UN secretary-general on the post-war developments that have taken place in Sri Lanka since Ban 's visit to the island country in 2009 and progress in a variety of different sectors.

"The president urged the secretary-general to make another visit to personally see the developments," the President's office said in a statement.

The president also updated Ban on the progress of the post war commission known as the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), pointing out that Sri Lanka has implemented about 30 percent of the recommendations so far. "I appreciate your leadership to implement the LLRC," the President's office quoted Ban as saying while also expressing his appreciation of the president's commitment to the democratic process.

President Rajapaksa also explained that addressing certain matters such as land ownership will take time, but that Sri Lanka remains committed to the LLRC process. The President also informed the secretary-general that Sri Lanka remains fully committed to implementing a domestic procedure to look into alleged violations that may have taken place during the war.

The president added that an international inquiry is not in keeping "with the vision of our people" and made reference to the contradictions in Paragraphs 2 and 10 of the last resolution of the UN Human Rights Council.

Sri Lanka would continue to work with the United Nations system, the president said.