Sri Lanka concedes ground to UN

So is this a step towards genuine peace and reconciliation on the island? A lot will depend on how much leash the Rajapaksa Government gives to the UN team and how it responds to any report the team will produce. Its role has been described as "technical and advisory" but it will certainly want to hear all points of view, including those of human rights groups and the victims themselves.

There is no doubt Rajapaksa would prefer a solution that allowed the country to finally put the issues of the civil war to bed. Tourism is beginning to flourish again, but any hint of a return to conflict would send visitors scurrying. However much he would deny that it makes any difference, the president would rather live without the constant drip of criticism and condemnation from the international community and especially from his big neighbour, India.

But balanced against this is his need to placate and accommodate the more militant members of Sinhalese society including radical elements of the Buddhist clergy who are behaving more like medieval crusaders than followers of peace and the pursuit of higher wisdom their religion is supposed to espouse.

Perhaps the last word on this issue can be left with Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee of Liberia, on a recent visit to Sri Lanka. Ms Gbowee, who led a women's peace movement that helped resolve the civil war in her country, urged an end to triumphalism and displays of military might that have marked the anniversaries of the end of the Sri Lankan conflict so far. "If fairness, justice and democracy are the tenets of your country, then you will stop celebrating the violent war victory and move towards a more just and equal society in which women play their full part," she said.