A U.N. report has identified patterns of grave violations in Sri Lanka between 2002 and 2011, strongly indicating that war crimes and crimes against humanity were most likely committed by both sides to the conflict.
KEY FINDINGS
The U.N. report accuses government forces and LTTE of sub-human atrocities during war. Unlawful killings: Sri Lankan forces targeted Tamil politicians, aid workers, journalists while LTTE eliminated Muslims and Sinhalese.
Deprivation of Liberty: forces used arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings as a norm
Gender violence: Lankan forces used rape and sexual violence against men and women as a instrument of torture.
It concludes that many of the instances established may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity.
It also records the killing of civilians by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, its forced recruitment of adults and children, and preventing civilians from leaving the conflict zone.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The report recommends the establishment of a hybrid special court, integrating international judges, prosecutors, lawyers and investigators, as an essential step towards justice.SRI LANKAN GOVERNMENT RESPONSE:
Sri Lankan government have committed to form domestic judicial mechanism to probe alleged war crimes .UNHRC RESOLUTION
- The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on alleged human rights violations during the Eelam War in Sri Lanka
- The resolution envisages the establishment of a Sri Lankan judicial mechanism to investigate allegations of violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law.
- The proposed mechanism will include Commonwealth and other foreign judges, defence lawyers and authorised prosecutors and investigators.
- Sri Lanka has co-sponsored the resolution.
- The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) described the suggestion of involving the foreign and Commonwealth jurists as a “significant victory for justice”.
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