Brende's visit is the first by a Norwegian foreign minister to Colombo since 2005, when the Nordic country was brokering a fragile cease-fire between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE.
Sri Lanka has set in motion the process to set up domestic mechanisms to probe alleged war crimes against ethnic Tamils and the consultation for this will begin next week, foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera said on Thursday.
"The domestic mechanisms through which we are trying to address this past, are in the process of being developed and the consultation process to design these mechanisms, will begin next week," Samaraweera said.
He was addressing reporters after meeting the visiting Norwegian foreign minister Borge Brende. "You are coming to Sri Lanka at a time when Sri Lanka is trying to come to terms with its past and to forge ahead," Samaraweera told Brende.
Brende's visit is the first by a Norwegian foreign minister to Colombo since 2005, when the Nordic country was brokering a fragile cease-fire between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE. Relations between the two countries soured after the ceasefire collapsed in 2006 and Sri Lanka's then-government accused Norway of favouring the Tamil Tiger rebels. Sri Lankan troops crushed the rebels in 2009.
Sri Lanka was the subject of UN Human Rights Council resolution in 2014 which called for an international investigation into alleged war crimes and rights abuses blamed both on the government troops and the LTTE.
The previous Mahinda Rajapaska regime did not cooperate with the investigation, saying it was an attack on the island's sovereignty. The investigators were denied entry to the country. The UN Human Rights chief in his report at the last September session of the UNHRC reiterated the call for an international investigation and proposed a hybrid court of international and local judges.
This was despite the Rajapaksa successor Maithripala Sirsena opting for a local mechanism instead of an international investigation. The joint resolution adopted at the end of the session allowed for a domestic mechanism and offered Sri Lanka technical support to set it up.
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