COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena reappointed three senior ministers to his new government on Monday, days before a visit by a U.S. envoy and crucial talks on a United Nations war crimes report.
Mangala Samarweera, Wijedasa Rajapaksa, and D.M. Swaminathan - from Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP) - return as foreign, justice, and resettlement ministers after last week's general election victory.
Sirisena has yet to name other cabinet ministers in the national unity government that is taking shape between the UNP and his Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).
"The foreign minister's appointment was key because of the top U.S. State Department official's visit on Tuesday," a government official said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to talk to the media.
"There are some issues of international importance that need to be discussed, including the upcoming U.N. report. Both justice and resettlement ministers need to be in these discussions," this source said.
Nisha Biswal, U.S. assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs, is due to arrive on Tuesday, the foreign ministry said. Sirisena should receive an advance copy this week of the U.N. report on alleged war crimes in the final phase of a 26-year conflict.
The U.S. sponsored a resolution in the U.N. Human Rights Council in March 2014 for an international war crimes probe after former president Mahinda Rajapaksa failed to implement the recommendations of a local panel, including probing alleged rights abuses by the military.
Allies of Rajapaksa, whose bid to come back as prime minister failed at the polls, have told Reuters that the report could name him and some top military leaders as responsible for war crimes.
The UN has previously estimated that the final offensive to crush a Tamil insurgency claimed the lives of around 40,000 people. Human rights groups say that, six years after the civil war ended, incidents of torture persist.