Sri Lanka News:

Sri Lankan leader rejects call for war crimes probe

Sri Lanka's president has rejected calls for a war crimes probe after a UN finding of "credible evidence" government forces committed atrocities when crushing Tamil Tiger guerrillas in 2009.

Mahinda Rajapaksa made the claims in front of several thousand people at a public protest against the findings in Colombo.

Last week the UN published the findings of a three-member panel secretary-general Ban Ki-moon appointed to advise him on issues of accountability related to the end of the war, despite Sri Lankan objections.

The report has renewed Western pressure on Sri Lanka to submit to an international probe over allegations that thousands of civilians were killed at the end of its 25-year war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Sri Lanka has since accused the West of applying double standards to Colombo's military moves to defeat a group that was on the terrorism lists of the United States, the UN and 30 other countries.

"This government fed the enemy which fought against it, using a human shield of 300,000 people," said Mr Rajapaksa, alluding to the fact that government agents tried to provide food to hungry civilians in Tiger-held areas only to end up feeding guerrillas who held them at gunpoint.

"What the government did was protect innocent civilians from the clutch of terrorists."

The UN panel, which did not have an investigative mandate, accused victorious Sri Lankan government troops of killing tens of thousands of civilians and said there was "credible evidence" war crimes were committed by both sides.

But the elimination of the LTTE, which carried out hundreds of suicide bombings and attacks on civilians during the insurgency and held nearly 300,000 people as human shields at the war's end, means any prosecutions would hit the government only.

"Children who went to school were forcibly taken to fight during those days. Today, they play cricket. Students who wore cyanide capsules around their necks today learn chemistry," Mr Rajapaksa said.

"Are these human rights violations or crimes?"

The release of the UN report before the findings of Sri Lanka's own Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission was divisive and harmful to the government's own moves to instil peace and reconciliation, the foreign ministry has said.

Many Sri Lankans have expressed bemusement at the accusations that war crimes were committed.

"The majority of Tamils affected by the war feel both sides are responsible for war crimes. So how can [the UN] punish only the president?" said K Kandasamy, 50, a Tamil who made his way to the rally from the formerly Tiger-held Kilinochchi area.

"In today's context, we have forgotten all the war crimes and have been supporting this president to develop our war-hit region, which is destroyed to zero," he said.

Mr Ban says the UN cannot act on the advisory panel's recommendation to investigate, saying this could only happen if Sri Lanka agreed to a probe or if the UN Security Council or Human Rights Council voted to take action.

Sri Lanka has support for its opposition to a probe from Russia and China on the Security Council. Whether it can muster enough backing at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva remains to be seen, diplomats say.

- AFP

(.abc.net.au)

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