Mr President,Sweden fully aligns itself with the statement made by Portugal, on behalf of the European Union. We welcome the report that the High Commissioner gave on her recent visit to Sri Lanka, and would like to thank her for her dedicated work.Like her, we welcome what the Government of Sri Lanka did to facilitate her visit there, and also what was done to help the Special Rapporteur on torture. We are also pleased that the Government has invited the Representative of the Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced persons to visit Sri Lanka soon. What is clear today, and also confirmed by thereport that the High Commissioner has presented, is that the humanitarian and human rights situation in Sri Lanka is deteriorating. That should continue to give cause for grave concern.What we learn about are extrajudicial killings and so-called enforced disappearances. We learn about repeated armed attacks on civilians, on humanitarian workers, on journalists. We learn about a continuing forced recruitment of soldiers, including of child soldiers, by theLiberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Karuna faction. All this points to the need for urgent action, theneed to make sure that human rights are respected, and the need to counter a widespread culture of impunity that facilitates abuse and violation of human rights. Allow us, Mr President, to urge the Government of Sri Lanka to explore all possible ways to strengthen the respect for human rights in the present, difficult situation. That ought to include continuing the negotiations with the Office of the High Commissioner on how a credible and independent international monitoring presence can be achieved. And it must of course also address how the long-term capacity can be created to meet the human rights challenges that we have just learned about again. Thank you.