Sri Lankan reconciliation facing external pressure

Colombo, June 7 (IANS) Sri Lanka Thursday said its post-war reconciliation process is facing serious challenges, partly due to external intervention.

The defence ministry accused some unnnamed countries of launching "a diplomatic crusade", putting their interests above those of Sri Lanka.

But Xinhua quoted an official statement as saying that Colombo had not given in to any outside pressure.

Sri Lanka is under pressure to speed up the reconciliation process and also hold accountable those responsible for alleged rights abuses during the final stages of the war that crushed the Tamil Tigers.

The ministry denied allegations of "Nazi type" military occupation of Sri Lanka's north, the former war zone, as well as land grabbing, forced demographic changes and occupation of coastal villages by the military.

"All such lobbying of extremist fundamentalism by the terror proxies are shades of a protracted programme at isolating the reconciliation process," the statement said.