Sri Lanka asks UN not to publish War Crimes Report

AFP | Sydney Morning Herald
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Sri Lanka asked the United Nations on Thursday (21) not to publish a forthcoming report on alleged war crimes during the island's ethnic war, saying it could set back reconciliation efforts.

Foreign Minister G. L. Peiris warned UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon about releasing the study compiled by a panel of experts who looked into alleged rights abuses and crimes against humanity during the war which ended in 2009.

"The publication of this report will cause irreparable damage to the reconciliation efforts of Sri Lanka. It will damage the UN system too," Peiris told reporters in Colombo. "This UN report is preposterous."

Peiris stressed that the government had never accepted Ban's appointment of the panel and warned him about initiating a full enquiry into suspected civilian deaths during the final stages of fighting.

He declined comment on the contents of the report, a copy of which was handed over to him nine days ago, even though parts of the 200-page document have been leaked in pro-government newspaper Island last weekend.

The UN has said it intends to make the report public some time this week.

"The consequences of publishing this report are far from favourable for the UN," Peiris warned. "It will undermine the principle of sovereign equality. A report as preposterous as this will inflict grave damage to the UN system."

Peiris also denied leaking the report, which recommends an enquiry into "credible allegations" of war crimes and crimes against humanity by both the government and the separatist Tamil rebels, according to the leaks.

It is said to state that "tens of thousands" of people died between January and May 2009 in the final government offensive that resulted in the defeat of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, ending a decades-old conflict.

It also listed alleged violations by the rebel forces, saying they had intentionally used civilians as human shields.

Peiris said Sri Lanka was ready to engage the UN in a construction discussion on taking the country's reconciliation process forward.

Sri Lanka's administration argues that no civilians were killed during its offensive against the Tigers.

The country has been fiercely criticised by international rights groups for failing to investigate deaths during the fighting.

President Mahinda Rajapakse has asked his supporters to turn this year's May Day rally into a demonstration against any UN war crimes investigation.

© Sydney Morning Herald

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Sri Lanka: Evidence of ongoing repression and abuse

Channel 4
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Two years on from the end of the devastating 26-year civil war that ripped Sri Lanka apart, Channel 4 News has obtained rare footage from inside the country's northern corner, formerly the Tamil stronghold.

This area has remained largely inaccessible since the end of the war and our footage was obtained by an independent source, who put their life at risk to film the material. The area remains under military control, and people still live in fear.

Tens of thousands of Tamils are still forced to live in makeshift camps and our film shows evidence and testimony of sytematic repression and the abuse of women.

War

Tens of thousands of civilians are believed to have died in the final few months of the Sri Lanka war, and many more were displaced.

Channel 4 News has also obtained documents which suggest that almost 100,000 people were unaccounted for at the end of the conflict.

Sri Lankan Government records show that, in 2008, 430,000 people were living in the northern area of Sri Lanka most affected by the civil war. After the chaos of the final few months of war, the Government moved civilians into camps - but UN figures mark only 290,000 held there. The whereabouts of the 100,000 or so remaining is unknown.

Many people are still searching for their families. Others want justice: including Dr Manoharan, who saw his son killed by security forces in 2006. He told Channel 4 News he had been searching for justice for his son, and all the other victims in Sri Lanka, ever since.

'War crimes' report

On Thursday, the UN will publish a report into the final months of the Sri Lanka war. The report, which has already been leaked, is expected to point to "crimes against humanity" which, if proven, suggest a "grave assault" on international law.

It will suggest that both the Sri Lankan Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE or Tamil Tigers) committed war crimes. The Government is accused of executions, rape and torture, as well as bombing civilians and hospitals, while the report suggests the Tamil Tigers used human shields and child soldiers.

The UN panel investigating the war also considered evidence submitted to them by Channel 4 News, in the form of an execution video which appeared to show clear evidence of war crimes.

The Sri Lankan Government has not responded fully to the report yet, but earlier branded it "fundamentally flawed".

Gordon Weiss, the UN spokesman in Sri Lanka during the Government's offensive against the Tamil Tigers in 2009, compared the war crimes claims to the infamous massacre of 7,000 men during the Bosnian war in 1995.

He told Channel 4 News: "This is Sri Lanka's Srebrenica moment, in fact it's a Srebrenica moment for the rest of the world."

© Channel 4

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'Forty thousand may have died' - UN

BBC Sinhala
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New disclosures about a United Nations (UN) report into the Sri Lankan civil war say it estimates that up to forty-thousand civilians were killed in the final phase of the conflict.

The figures were leaked by the Island newspaper and have since been confirmed by the UN.

"A number of credible sources have estimated that there could have been as many as 40,000 civilian deaths. Two years after the end of the war, there is still no reliable figure for civilian deaths, but multiple sources of information indicate that a range of up to 40,000 civilian deaths cannot be ruled out at this stage" says the report compiled by the UN expert pannel.

Indiscriminate shelling

The report accuses the Srilankan government forces of indiscriminate shelling causing civilian deaths and hindering of humanitarian assistance provided by ships of the International Red Cross (ICRC).

The report recommends a proper investigation which can lead to the identification of all of the victims and to the formulation of an accurate figure for the total number of civilian deaths.

The full report is expected to be published soon.

The Sri Lankan government, which was given a copy last week, has already rejected its findings.

© BBC Sinhala

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Sri Lanka opposition demands probe over UN report

AFP | Yahoo!! News
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Sri Lanka's main opposition party on Wednesday urged the government to respond to United Nations allegations of war crimes by launching an immediate official investigation.

The United National Party (UNP) demanded action over leaked parts of a UN report into alleged atrocities committed by Sri Lankan soldiers as the civil war against Tamil Tiger rebels came to an end in 2009.

The report, commissioned by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, is to be officially released this week.

Details printed in a Sri Lankan newspaper at the weekend said there were "credible" allegations that government forces committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the final push to secure victory over the rebels.

"Sri Lanka's image has been tarnished by this report. The only way to redeem ourselves as a country is to go into the allegations," UNP spokesman Lakshman Kiriella told reporters in Colombo.

"We ask the government to start an immediate internal investigation."

Sri Lanka's administration argues that no civilians were killed during its offensive to beat the Tigers and end decades of warfare on the island.

President Mahinda Rajapakse has asked his supporters to turn this year's May Day rally into a demonstration against any war crimes investigation.

The UN report said allegations of attacks against civilians deserved serious examination and the prosecution of those responsible.

The Tiger rebels, who fought for an independent Tamil homeland, are also accused of using civilians as a human shield and killing those who tried to flee the war zone.

On Wednesday a court hearing into former army chief Sarath Fonseka, who led the campaign against the Tigers, was postponed ahead of the UN report's release.

Fonseka is facing charges over telling a newspaper editor that Rajapakse's brother ordered surrendering Tamil rebel leaders to be shot.

Fonseka quit the army and challenged Rajapakse at January 2010 presidential elections, but after losing the election he was arrested and jailed for 30 months. He faces several court cases.

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UN report causes delay in trial of Sri Lanka's former army chief

Deutsche Presse Argentur | Monsters & Critics
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A UN report on Sri Lanka's civil war delayed the defamation trial Wednesday of the former army commander who had implicated the government in war crimes.

General Sarath Fonseka's lawyer sought the delay in order to study the report on the government's final military offensive against Tamil rebels two years ago.

'In view of the local and international ramifications the evidence may have, we have sought further time to give evidence. Accordingly the case was put off for May 4,' Nalin Ladduwahetti said.

Fonseka, who spearheaded the military campaign that defeated the rebels, is currently serving a 30-month jail term for following irregular purchasing procedures while serving as the Army commander.

He is currently on trial for comments made to a local newspaper in 2009 alleging that Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa had ordered the military not to spare any of the Tamil rebels even if they were surrendering.

Fonseka is charged with making false statements and arousing public anger at the government. Rajapaksa is the president's brother.

The report commissioned by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was handed over to the Sri Lankan government on April 12. Colombo was due to respond to the allegations on Thursday.

Parts of the report that have appeared in the media said the UN panel found credible allegations of a wide range of serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law by both the government forces and Tamil rebels.

The government has denied committing any war crimes during the conflict that ended with the defeat of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in May 2009.

The UN estimated that some 7,500 civilians died during the final phase of the conflict in the northern part of the country.

© Monsters & Critics

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