16 August, 2013 - Sri Lanka's president on Wednesday appointed a commission to investigate
wartime abductions and disappearances ahead of an update to be given to the United
Nations Human Rights Council on the country's progress in investigating alleged war
crimes and human rights violations. President Mahinda Rajapaksa's office said he
appointed retired Judge Maxwell Parakrama Parnagama to head the three-member committee.
The appointment comes ahead of a visit by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights
Navi Pillay later this month. Her office will update the human rights council on the
findings of her visit during its session next month. The council in March approved
for a second successive year a United States-backed resolution calling on Sri Lanka
to more thoroughly investigate alleged war crimes committed by both sides during its
civil war with Tamil Tiger rebels. It also directed Pillay's office to update the
council on Sri Lanka's progress. In May 2009, Sri Lanka's military defeated Tamil
Tiger rebels who had fought a quarter-century civil war to create an independent state
for ethnic minority Tamils. A U.N. report has said that Sri Lanka's ethnic Sinhalese-dominated
government may have killed as many as 40,000 Tamil civilians in the final months of
the war. Rajapaksa's government is also accused of abducting suspected rebels, human
rights activists, and critical journalists during and after the conflict. Many of
those abducted are feared dead. The rebels are also accused of killing civilians,
using them as human shields and recruiting child soldiers. Sri Lanka's government
initially denied any civilian deaths but amid growing international pressure appointed
a Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission which dismissed allegations that the
military intentionally killed civilians but called for investigations into civilian
deaths. (Source: AP)