Truth seeking investigations
SRI LANKA: New Government asks for delay of a UN war crimes report until Sri Lankan mechanisms are put in place
The newly elected Sri Lankan Government presided by Maithripala Sirisena has asked the UN Human Rights Council to delay for several months the release of its report on alleged war crimes until the Government has time to establish a new judicial mechanism to deal with the allegations. The UN report on violence during the civil war, due to be published in March 2015, faced the opposition of the previous Sri Lankan administration, that said that a national inquiry process should take priority. The new Sri Lankan Government, elected in January 2015, has also announced it will undertake a local inquiry, inviting the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit to discuss the issue. Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera expressed the Government’s will to refer the findings of the report to the Sri Lankan judicial mechanism. UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville responded that the report was still due on March 25. In a written statement to the 28th session of the UN Human Rights Council, Amnesty International has welcomed new official commitments to end impunity and promote the rule of law, pursue reconciliation between all communities, and rebuild Sri Lanka’s international relationships, and has encouraged the Government to translate this commitment into action. Although the Sri Lankan Government rejects the findings, an earlier UN report estimated that about 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed, most of them by army shelling, in the final weeks of the civil war (1983-2009), between the Government and the LTTE. (Reuters, 11/02/15; BBC, 12/02/15; AI, 16/02/15)