Any credible accusation of human rights violations committed during the final bloody phase of Sri Lanka’s war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) should be investigated, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday.
“I’d like to ask the Sri Lankan government to recognize the international call for accountability and full transparency,” Ban told reporters after he briefed the UN Security Council on a trip to Sri Lanka where he visited refugee camps and flew over the former conflict zone.
“Whenever and wherever there are credible allegations for the violations of international humanitarian law there should be a proper investigation,” he said.
Human rights groups have criticized the government for what they say was a wanton disregard for human life during the final months of the war by continuously using heavy artillery to shell a tiny strip of land the Tigers had retreated to along with hundreds of thousands of civilians.
Ban and other UN officials accused the LTTE of holding the civilians hostage and using them as human shields as they fought to hold on to their sliver of coast in northeastern Sri Lanka.
The LTTE and Sri Lankan government have rejected the charges.
UN officials say it is unclear how many civilians died during the final phase of the war, which ended when the government declared victory on May 18.
UN humanitarian chief John Holmes has said that several thousand civilians were killed.
Diplomatic sources have said the figure was probably higher than 10,000 but below 20,000.
During his trip to Sri Lanka last month, Ban urged the government to improve UN humanitarian access to the refugee camps, which hold more than 300,000 people. He told reporters that the government had told him restrictions were being eased and conditions in the camps were better.
Ban has also urged the government to ensure that it seeks reconciliation with the country’s Tamil minority and that there is no “triumphalism” over the defeat of the Tigers now that the nearly 26-year war is over.
Sri Lankan Ambassador to the UN H.M.G.S. Palihakkara told reporters that his government was taking UN recommendations to heart. But he said nothing about a full-scale war crimes investigation, something Colombo has said it would not accept.
“We have initiated a process of reconciliation and fact-finding,” he said.
Ban also urged Sri Lanka to look after three doctors who were in the LTTE zone during the conflict. The government has accused them of being propagandists for the rebels based on comments they made to media about civilian casualties caused by government forces during the fighting. All three are in custody.
Meanwhile, police commandos flushing out Tiger remnants killed two rebel fighters hiding in jungle in the east of the island, the military said yesterday.
Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said the commandos confronted the guerrillas in Ampara district on Friday. After an exchange of fire, the commandos recovered the two bodies, assault rifles, ammunition and food stocks, Nanayakkara said.
In other news, the Tigers’ international spokesman said late on Friday that the LTTE’s inability to win sympathy overseas had caused its downfall.
Selvarasa Pathmanathan, who lives in exile overseas but does not disclose his location, said that despite demonstrations around many European capitals by expatriate Tamils, “we were unable to move the nations of the world in support of our legitimate cause.”
“We were only able to get these nations to voice their concerns and criticisms but were unable to get them to act to prevent the massacres or support our cause,” he said.
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