Sri Lanka lifts ban on UN investigators

The government of Sri Lanka at the weekend said it would allow a team of UN investigators to visit the island, lifting a previous ban to grant visas. For some time now Sri Lanka’s government has flatly rejected a three-member UN panel by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to look into possible war crimes in the country’s 25-year war against Tamil Tiger sepratists.


It also ruled out visas for members of the panel if they wanted to visit Sri Lanka for any investigations. But now there has been a change of heart on behalf of the government.


It now says it will allow the United Nations to send a representative to a locally appointed war crimes panel called the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), appointed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to probe the end of the war and which has been criticised by human rights groups as lacking independence.


Director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka Jehan Perera says they are fears on the part of the government concerning this investigation.


Analysts have described this gesture by the government as a small, and ineffectual, concession to demands by Western governments and human rights groups for an international probe into the
military's May 2009 crushing defeat of the Tamil Tiger.


And Sri Lanka's failure to set up an independent probe into the alleged war crimes has already had economic repercussion costing the island nation $150 million worth in trade concession from the European Union annually and a slowing down in foreign investment.
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