It’s emerged unexpectedly that two senior advisers to President Barack Obama are already in the country, with top UN and Japanese envoys, Lynn Pascoe and Yasushi Akashi, also visiting or about to arrive.

War crimes

Last month, one year after its war victory, the Sri Lankan government was infuriated by a series of reports by international human rights groups alleging that the government, as well as the LTTE, may have committed war crimes in the final months of conflict.

Colombo denies perpetrating such acts.

Now it’s suddenly emerged that the US National Security Council’s Director for War Crimes and Atrocities, David Pressman, is already here, along with another senior Obama administration adviser, Samantha Power.

They’re meeting officials and civil society members and visiting the parts of the island where the war took place.

Washington was highly critical of the government’s all-out war tactics last year but has recently emphasised the carrot more than the stick.

Last month the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, said that a panel on reconciliation newly established by the Sri Lankan authorities should be given a chance to do its work despite attracting some international criticism.

International inquiry

By contrast, senior United Nations figures have been calling for an international inquiry on the war’s endgame.

The UN’s top political official, Lynn Pascoe, will finally arrive on Wednesday for a visit that’s been repeatedly postponed.

His Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, is setting up a panel of experts as part of what the UN calls an accountability process to address violations of international humanitarian law in Sri Lanka.

The words “accountability” and “reconciliation” figure in both the US and the UN official accounts of their diplomats’ visits here – a clue to what both of them see as priorities in post-war Sri Lanka.