Obama refers to Sri Lanka North and East war in his

Former US President Barack Obama has referred to Sri Lanka’s North and East war in his latest book.

Obama's “A Promised Land” topped the USA TODAY Best-Selling Books list by selling more than 1.7 million copies in North America in its first week, roughly equal to the combined first week sales of memoirs by his two immediate predecessors and among the highest ever for a nonfiction book.

The reference on Sri Lanka, though very short, is likely to stir controversy in Sri Lanka and overseas.

In it, he notes that UN member states lacked either the means or the collective will to reconstruct failing states like Somalia, or prevent ethnic slaughter in places like Sri Lanka.

He is referring to the final stages of the war in Sri Lanka during which time he was the President of the UNited States.

At that time, Obama had made a statement in front of the media calling on the LTTE to release trapped civilians and the then government to stop using heavy weapons.

In his book, Obama also says UN peacekeeping missions, dependent on voluntary troop contributions from member states, were consistently understaffed and ill-equipped.

“At times, the General Assembly devolved into a forum for posturing, hypocrisy, and one-sided condemnations of Israel; more than one U.N. agency became embroiled in corruption scandals, while vicious autocracies like Khamenei’s Iran and Assad’s Syria would maneuver to get seats on the U.N. Human Rights Council," he said

However, he also says that despite all its shortcomings, the UN served a vital function.