Sri Lanka - humanitarian crisis

UN rights chief pushes for independent inquiry into human rights abuses

Article published on the 2009-05-28 Latest update 2009-05-28 14:39 TU

Tamil civilians at the Manik Farm refugee camp near the town of Vavuniya on 26 May
(Photo: Reuters)

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay continued to press for an inquiry on Thursday into alleged abuses committed by both sides during the military’s campaign against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

During Sri Lanka’s campaign against the LTTE, both sides were accused of abusing civilians. The LTTE are suspected of holding thousands of civilians as human shields. While government forces allegedly shelled areas with large concentrations of civilians.

The UN Human Rights Council adopted a new resolution put forward by Sri Lanka on Wednesday.

Sri Lanka had proposed the resolution “because they wanted to address the situation of civilians that had been trapped by terrorists”. And the resolution itself was adopted with 29 votes for, 12 against and six abstentions.

It urged other countries to assist the government with their reconstruction efforts and give financial assistance.

The resolution did advocate that the government strengthens its activities to ensure “no discrimination against ethnic minorities in the enjoyment of the full range of human rights”.

However, Pillay told the Council that “there are strong reasons to believe that both sides have grossly disregarded the fundamental principle of the inviolability of civilians”.

“An independent and credible international investigation into recent events should be dispatched to ascertain the occurrence, nature and scale of violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law,” she added.

Human rights groups criticised the Council and said that the result provides Sri Lanka with an endorsement of their war and the aftermath.