Following the US Embassy's Defense Attaché, Lt. Col. Lawrence Smith's peculiar remarks at Sri Lanka's three day seminar, the US State Department have responded swiftly in a statement describing his remarks as 'personal opinions' and stipulating that they 'do not reflect the policy of the United States Government'.

The statement went on to reiterate the United States' concern over the findings of the UN Panel report and commitment to ensuring credible accountability. 

Sri Lanka ranked fourth amongst states ‘Getting Away With Murder’, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said this week. (see the 2011  Impunity Index)

Sri Lanka fourth comes after Iraq, Somalia and the Phillipines. (Philippines ranks higher due to a single incident – the massacre of 32 journalists and media workers in 2009.) 

Sri Lanka ranks higher than Afghanistan, Mexico and Colombia.

Judge Richard Goldstone (former chief prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda), writing for the BBC on the extradition of General Ratko Mladic, said it represented yet another key milestone in the "end of the effective impunity for the worst war criminals".

Making particular reference to Sri Lanka and Syria, Judge Goldstone warned perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide that they will be brought justice.

Sri Lanka’s Central Bank is twisting statistics to project an unrealistic picture of economic development, an economist and parliamentarian of the main opposition said this week.

These falsehoods are contributing to the "deteriorating credibility of the now completely politicized institution," Harsha de Silva of the United National Party (UNP) told The Island newspaper.

See also our earlier post:

At the 17th UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) meeting presently underway in Geneva, UN rights chief Navi Pillai called an international investigation of war crimes in the final months in 2009 of Sri Lanka’s war.

Who supported: US, EU, France, Ireland

Who opposed: Pakistan, China, Cuba

Channel 4 is to screen Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, a special one-hour investigation which features devastating new video evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Sri Lanka, at the UN this Friday 3 June.

Presented by Channel 4 News journalist Jon Snow, the film features footage captured on mobile phones, both by Tamil civilians under attack and government soldiers as war trophies.

“I conclude on the basis of the extensive technical evidence we obtained from independent experts that what is depicted in the video indeed happened. … I believe that a prima facie case of serious international crimes has been made."

"The prima facie case should go to the next level of investigation on a domestic and an international level. ...

As speculation drove Sri Lanka’s stock market to a 1-week high, foreign investors net sold $1.5 m (Rs. 165m) worth of shares on Monday, Reuters reported.

Foreign investors have sold a net $58m (Rs. 6.36 bn) worth of shares in 2011, after a record $240m (Rs. 26.4 bn) in 2010.

 See our earlier posts:

Let me also refer to the report of the Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on accountability in Sri Lanka, which concludes that there are credible allegations of a wide range of serious violations of international law committed by both the Sri Lankan Government forces and Tamil Tigers in the final stages of the conflict.