The Sri Lankan government reiterated that reconciliation was one of its priorities.
“Reconciliation is not a box that can be ticked or a journey that can end as per a timeline. There are no magic portions to achieve what we set out to achieve,” the deputy foreign minister Harsha de Silva was quoted by LBO as saying at an event on transitional justice on November 9.
“It requires hard work and constant striving, and a commitment towards which our nation should be bound across generations.”
Referring to the co-sponsored resolution passed last year, Mr Silva said, “as contexts differ and there are no cookie-cutter models that can be adopted in sensitive processes such as transitional justice, this is a journey that our nation has to undertake and chart on its own.”
“Yet, we cannot afford to experiment or make mistakes. Therefore, we rely on technical expertise as well as advice, and Pablo and the OHCHR officers have been excellent partners to us in our journey.”
His remarks come as the government faces increasing calls to take action over incidents of racist verbal abuse by Sinhala Buddhist monks towards Tamils and Muslims.
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