When Sri Lanka is healing from the 30-year long armed conflict, the United Nations must render assistance, not complicate the reconciliation process, the Russian government said.

The Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Sri Lanka Vladimir P. Mikhaylov made these remarks during a meeting with the Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa at the Defence Ministry yesterday (20).

"We believe that now, when Sri Lanka is healing its wounds after a long armed conflict, the UN may render its assistance, if needed, and not complicate the process of reconciliation. Our representative to the UN in New York recently reconfirmed this position," the Ambassador said.

The Russian Ambassador said the report, handed over to the UN secretary-General Ban Ki-moon by the Panel appointed by him to advise him on Sri Lanka's accountability during the last stages of the war between the government forces and the LTTE terrorists, is not a "UN report".

"We speak not about a 'UN report', since it was prepared neither by a UN body or nor even by its request. It was just a personal initiative of the UN Secretary General," he said.

"We should be more precise in definitions not to mislead the public," he has added.

He added that the primary responsibility for investigating the events that occurred in the past in Sri Lanka lies with its government and that the newly appointed panel should not take any step that would complicate the investigation being conducted by the authorities of Colombo.

He said the Panel of Advisors went beyond its task, at least as it had been made known to Russia's representatives in New York.

Ambassador Mikhaylov said that the Russia's position on the war crimes allegations against Sri Lanka was made public by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation in its press statement on June 24, 2010.

The statement criticized the UN Chief for not asking the opinion of the Security Council or the General Assembly on this matter before appointing the panel.

"What also makes us cautious is the fact that this decision was taken without regard to the position of a sovereign state and a member of the UN - Sri Lanka," the statement said last year.