<p>The 'Panel of Experts' was initially supposed to submit its report by December 15.<br />"The (period of) the submissions to the panel has been extended to the end of this year, from the previous deadline of mid-December," said Farhan Haq, the Deputy Spokesman of the Secretary General.<br /><br />"They are on track to put out a report on their schedule. I don't have a precise date for when that will happen," Haq said in response to a question at the daily noon briefing held at the UN headquarters in New York.<br /><br />Haq said the Secretary-General has made it clear that he would review whatever the panel gives him and then decide at that point about making anything public.<br /><br />Last week, Ban said that his panel of experts would now be able to visit Sri Lanka and meet a Sri Lankan commission looking into the ethnic conflict that ended last May.<br /><br />"I sincerely hope that the Panel of Experts will be able to have good cooperation, to have an accountability process and make progress as soon as possible. This is a result of long consultations, and I appreciate the flexibility of the President (Mahinda) Rajapaksa on this issue," Ban had said.<br /><br />Lanka said earlier that it would not allow the panel to visit the country, calling it an infringement of its sovereignty.<br /><br />Three international non governmental organisations, the New York-based Human Rights Watch, London-based Amnesty International and Brussels-based International Crisis Group have snubbed an invitation to appear before the Commission on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation, last month, accusing it of a cover-up and lacking credibility.</p>.<p>Both the Tamil Tigers and Sri Lanka's government have been accused by human rights groups of committing crimes against humanity during the last phase of the three-decade- long conflict that ended in May 2009.</p>
<p>The 'Panel of Experts' was initially supposed to submit its report by December 15.<br />"The (period of) the submissions to the panel has been extended to the end of this year, from the previous deadline of mid-December," said Farhan Haq, the Deputy Spokesman of the Secretary General.<br /><br />"They are on track to put out a report on their schedule. I don't have a precise date for when that will happen," Haq said in response to a question at the daily noon briefing held at the UN headquarters in New York.<br /><br />Haq said the Secretary-General has made it clear that he would review whatever the panel gives him and then decide at that point about making anything public.<br /><br />Last week, Ban said that his panel of experts would now be able to visit Sri Lanka and meet a Sri Lankan commission looking into the ethnic conflict that ended last May.<br /><br />"I sincerely hope that the Panel of Experts will be able to have good cooperation, to have an accountability process and make progress as soon as possible. This is a result of long consultations, and I appreciate the flexibility of the President (Mahinda) Rajapaksa on this issue," Ban had said.<br /><br />Lanka said earlier that it would not allow the panel to visit the country, calling it an infringement of its sovereignty.<br /><br />Three international non governmental organisations, the New York-based Human Rights Watch, London-based Amnesty International and Brussels-based International Crisis Group have snubbed an invitation to appear before the Commission on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation, last month, accusing it of a cover-up and lacking credibility.</p>.<p>Both the Tamil Tigers and Sri Lanka's government have been accused by human rights groups of committing crimes against humanity during the last phase of the three-decade- long conflict that ended in May 2009.</p>