Pope urges communal peace in Srilanka

Pope Francis said on Tuesday Sri Lanka needed to find out the truth of what happened during its long civil war in order to consolidate peace and heal scars between religious communities.

Francis appeared to make the case for a truth commission to investigate the Buddhist-majority nation`s 26-year civil war, an election pledge of the government voted into office on Thursday.

"The process of healing also needs to include the pursuit of truth, not for the sake of opening old wounds, but rather as a necessary means of promoting justice, healing and unity," he said on arrival at Bandaranaike international airport.

The war pitted mainly Hindu Tamils against the Sinhalese, and mostly Buddhist, majority. It ended in 2009 with a crushing defeat of the Tamil rebels in an army onslaught that killed up to 40,000 civilians, according to a 2011 U.N. estimate.

On his second Asian excursion, Francis will spend two days in Sri Lanka before going to the Philippines, part of his outreach aimed at shoring-up the Church`s presence in developing nations.