Colombo attacks creation of UN group to investigate human rights violations
(June 24, 2010) The Sri Lanka government has reacted harshly to the decision of the
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to create a group of experts to investigate violations
of human rights during the long years of civil war, which began in 1972 and officially
ended in 2009. on Wednesday, the government spokesman in Colombo, Keheliya Rambukwella,
has accused the UN of pursuing "an attempt to give oxygen to the Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam or the LTTE”. The task of the panel created Monday by the UN secretary
is to "advice on the issue of liability relating to allegations of violations of human
rights and international humanitarian law during the last days of the conflict." Colombo
is particularly concerned by the fact that the UN gives credit to the many voices
of groups like Human Rights Watch (HRW), who accuse the army. HRW recently its in
polemics with the government, said it "also had photographic evidence" of violations.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa instead claims that "our troops had a gun in one hand
and a copy of the Declaration of Human Rights in the other." Neither does Colombo
like the composition of the group, led by Indonesia Marzuk Darusman, already responsible
for examining human rights abuses in North Korea and who in 2008 led a mission on
human rights in Sri Lanka , clashing with the authorities.