by Zacki Jabbar

With the government sending conflicting signals on the use of foreign judges in the proposed domestic war crimes tribunal, three senior American officials arrived in Colombo yesterday.

The UNHRC, U.K. and the U.S have emphasised that the credibility of investigations into allegations of war crimes against government forces and the LTTE especially during the final stages of the war which ended on May 19 , 2009 would depend on foreign judges being drafted into the domestic mechanism that was to be established.

Diplomatic sources said that the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Nisha Biswal , U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Tom Malinowski and U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for South Asia Manpreet Singh Anand were quickly back in Colombo due to a perception that the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government having Co-Sponsored the UNHRC resolution on accountability issues appeared to be dilly dallying with regard to implementation.

Malinowski had met with Human Rights Commission Chief Deepika Udagama to discuss the progress that had been made with regard to allegations of rights rights violations, the sources added.

Biswal had called on Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera last night during which they had discussed how democratic governance and reconciliation could be taken to its logical conclusion and also bilateral economic cooperation.

She is also due to meet the Tamil National Alliance and several other political leaders and government officials during her two day visit.

Courtesy:The Island