A top U.N. official appealed to Sri Lanka on Friday to begin a process of national reconciliation following its war with the Tamil Tiger rebels, but also cautioned that investigations into war crimes allegations remained possible, AP reported. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was scheduled to travel Friday to Sri Lanka to discuss the conditions of nearly 300,000 ethnic Tamil civilians displaced by the war and to urge the government to work to heal this nation's ethnic divisions in the wake of the conflict, said his chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar. Ban sent Nambiar to Sri Lanka last week to press the government to pull back from its final offensive and allow the civilians in the war zone to escape. However, since he arrived, the military routed the rebels and killed their top leaders, effectively ending the war. Nambiar said the government now needed to hold discussions with Tamil leaders to pursue a political solution to their grievances. «The process of national reconciliation, we feel, must be all inclusive so that it can fully address the legitimate aspirations of the Tamils as well as other minorities,» he said. «It is important that victory becomes a victory for all Sri Lankans.»
