UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and a Sri Lankan minister on Thursday discussed a number of issues concerning the post-conflict situation in the South Asian nation, including conditions in the camps housing displaced civilians and the importance of reconciliation and accountability, a readout provided by Ban's spokesperson said here.
Ban got a first-hand look at the situation in the camps, which are housing over 280,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), when he visited the country in late May just after the Sri Lankan government declared that its military operation against the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had ended.
The conditions in the camps, particularly with the approaching monsoon season, was just one of the issues discussed on Thursday during the secretary-general's meeting in Geneva with Mahinda Samarasinghe, the Sri Lankan minister for disaster management and human rights, the UN readout said.
"They also talked about the return of IDPs, as well as the importance of free movements of people among the camps and of international humanitarian aid workers," said the readout summarizing the meeting issued at the UN Headquarters in New York.
"They talked about the importance of reconciliation," the readout said. "They also discussed accountability, particularly in light of the recent accusation of extrajudicial executions."
Ban has called for accountability for those who may have committed human rights abuses, as was agreed in the joint statement issued with the Sri Lankan government at the end of his visit in May, UN officials said here.