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UN official calls on Sri Lanka to investigate war crimes allegations

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe on Saturday urged the Sri Lankan government to conduct an independent inquiry into allegations of war crimes during the civil war against the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). After a visit to camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), Pascoe also said that the Sri Lankan government must make quicker progress in shutting down such camps and working toward political reconciliation among the country's warring ethnic factions. Speaking a press conference in Colombo, Pascoe said: Internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in Government-run camps in Sri Lanka lack basic rights of freedom of movement, and the country is not making the expected progress towards a lasting peace in the wake of the end earlier this year to fighting between military forces and Tamil rebels.Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said that the government plans to resettle 265,000 displaced persons by January. In separate interviews, Rajapaksa pledged more development in the country to work toward a lasting peace, while accusing Western nations of hypocrisy for criticizing his plans. In May, as the country's decades-long civil war was coming to an end, Rajapaksa denied humanitarian groups full access to refugee camps, saying the camps still needed to be screened for rebel fighters. The UN and other organizations have accused both the Sri Lankan military and LTTE of human rights violations during the conflict. The Sri Lankan government finished its internal investigation of human rights violations in June while refusing to permit an external probe to conduct a full investigation.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on September 19, 2009 (boomark / email).