The US has warned Sri Lanka that the patience of the international community could wear thin if the Rajapaksa Government does not take steps to address the issue of human rights, accountability and reconciliation process.

“The United States and all of our friends across the international community have underscored the need for Sri Lanka to make progress on issues of reconciliation, on issues of accountability and on issues of human rights - ongoing concerns about the political space and human rights in the country,” Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal told reporters.

“We are committed to working with our friends in Sri Lanka to see that progress,” Ms. Biswal said in response to a question, adding that the US would like to see Sri Lanka address these issues through its own processes.

“We hope that, that can in fact be the case. I think that the patience of the international community if real progress is not seen, particularly on issues of accountability, that patience will start to wear thin. And so we urge our friends in Sri Lanka to use the opportunity to show some concrete steps that their own, you know, processes have yielded,” Ms. Biswal said.

“Through the LLRC (Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission), there are a set of recommendations. I think that those are exactly the points that we’d like to see progress on, and we’ve encouraged them to do that,” the top US official said. (PTI)