S. Lanka to probe civil war abuses
Minister: No need for an international tribunal
WASHINGTON: Sri Lanka says it will conduct its own investigation into rights abuses during the final months of the island nation’s civil war when thousands of civilians reportedly died, dismissing the need for an international tribunal.
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G.M. Peiris spoke on Friday after meeting Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and presenting his government’s plans for reconciliation and reconstruction following the 25-year conflict.
Ties have been strained by US sponsorship of a resolution passed by the UN human rights council in March to press Sri Lanka to conduct an independent probe into civilian deaths in the final months of the war that ended in 2009, when ethnic Tamil rebels’ battle for an independent state was crushed by Sri Lanka’s military.
Peiris said Sri Lanka’s attorneygeneral had begun an inquiry into several incidents that a government-appointed reconciliation commission said required further investigation and would assess whether there was adequate evidence for criminal proceedings. He said security forces would not be immune from prosecution.
“The local enquiry has just started,” Peiris told reporters.
“It has to be given reasonable opportunity to move forward and to come to a conclusion. Until that is done, any kind of intervention by any kind of international tribunal is premature.”
Human rights groups have accused Sri Lanka of foot-dragging and evasion on the issue.
The reconciliation commission, which convened in 2010 and delivered its report last December, gathered evidence on the conflict from both sides, but rights groups say it failed to investigate, for example, the use of heavy artillery against civilian areas as possible war crimes.
A UN report found that up to 40,000 people died in the final five months of the war and said Sri Lankan troops deliberately targeted civilians. — AP