President: Sri Lanka wants to clear its name of war crimes charges

May 10, 2011, 9:35 GMT

Colombo – Sri Lanka's president said Tuesday he would respond to what he called 'false allegations' in a UN report on alleged war crimes committed in the final phases of Sri Lanka's civil war, to clear the country's name.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa said during a meeting with newspaper editors that his government took the report 'seriously' and was preparing a response to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

'We are not taking the allegations lightly,' he said. 'Since false allegations have been made, we need to respond to them as a government.'

The report released two weeks ago said a UN panel found credible reports of war crimes committed by both the government and Tamil separatist rebels in the final stages of the civil war two years ago.

At the time, more than 300,000 civilians were confined to a narrow strip of land in north-eastern Sri Lanka as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fought the government forces from in their midst.

The UN panel said 'a number of credible sources have estimated that there could have been as many as 40,000 civilian deaths.'

Rajapaksa said he was not in a position to give any figures on civilian casualties because there were no proper figures about the number of civilians in the areas where the fighting took place.

He reiterated his government's position since 2009 that it had been engaged in a humanitarian operation to rescue civilians from rebel-held areas and its forces had not intentionally targeted civilians.

The government defeated the LTTE in May 2009, ending a 26-year civil war.

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