COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

7 MARCH 2012 SRI LANKA
―The United Nations human rights chief today urged further investigations into the
conduct of the final stages of the conflict in Sri Lanka after a UN panel into those events
found there were credible reports that both Government forces and Tamil rebels had
committed war crimes.
―The panel found credible allegations of serious violations committed by the
Government, including killing of civilians through widespread shelling and the denial of
humanitarian assistance.
―The panel‘s first recommendation is that the Sri Lankan Government should respond to
the serious allegations by initiating an effective accountability process beginning with
genuine investigations.‖
See also The internal conflict (1984 to May 2009)
3.54 For more information see the UN Report of the Secretary-General‘s panel of experts on
accountability in Sri Lanka .
3.55 For a summary of the main allegations of the UN Panel report provided by BBC news
click on the hyperlink
3.56 On 13 September 2011 UN News 64 reported that:
―Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has sent the report of his panel of experts on
accountability issues during the final stages of the civil war in Sri Lanka to the United
Nations human rights chief and the President of the Human Rights Council. ‘The Sri
Lankan Government has been informed of the Secretary-General‘s decision to share
the report with the Council and the High Commissioner,‘ Mr. Ban‘s spokesperson said in
a statement issued last night.
―‗While the Secretary-General had given time to the Government of Sri Lanka to
respond to the report, the Government has declined to do so, and instead has produced
its own reports on the situation in the north of Sri Lanka, which are being forwarded
along with the panel of experts report,‘ the statement added.‖
The Ministry of Defence report covering events between July 2006 and May 2009
3.57 On 3 August 2011 Irin 65 reported:
―Sri Lankan rights activists say the Defence Ministry report released on 1 August [2011],
acknowledging for the first time civilian deaths in the final days of the war, is a step
forward, but caution that much depends on the government‘s next move.
63 UN News, Sri Lanka: UN rights chief urges further probes into reports of war crimes,
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=38194&Cr=sri+lanka&Cr1 date accessed 1 June 2011
64 UN News, Sri Lanka: Ban forwards report on Sri Lanka war crimes to top UN human rights body, 13
September 2011 http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39520&Cr=Sri+Lanka&Cr1 date
accessed 1 January 2012
65 Irin, Sri Lanka: War report a step forward, say activists, 3 August 2011
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=93407 date accessed 18 January 2012
The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February 2012.
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section
to 2 March 2012.
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