Speaking to journalists in Colombo he said that Sri Lanka has a great opportunity to gain long lasting peace and stressed the importance of resettling all internally displaced persons as soon as possible.

Blake who is on a day’s visit to Sri Lanka said that "key part of reconciliation will be to assure accountability to redress past wrongs"

While expressing confidence in the government's reconciliation efforts he said that the expert panel appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon could provide valuable inputs into it.

Blake pointed out that the UN expert panel has no investigative or judiciary powers and it only has an advisory role.

Blake said, "A last pillar of reconciliation will be to advance democracy and human rights"

Blake who was the former US ambassador to Colombo also stressed the need for improvements in media freedom.