Sri Lanka rejects Amnesty's criticism of Tamil rebels' probe

Sep 7, 2011, 13:43 GMT

Colombo - Sri Lanka on Wednesday rejected criticism by a human rights watchdog that a probe into events during the military operations against Tamil rebels two years ago was inadequate.

Amnesty International on Wednesday said the inquiry by a government-appointed commission was 'flawed at every level.'

A spokesman for the External Affairs Ministry said the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) was only due to release its findings on November 15.

'It is premature to comment about the report as the findings have not been released. The commission has done detailed studies and followed procedures in carrying out their investigations,' the ministry spokesman said.

The report comes ahead of next week's meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva where Sri Lanka is expected to brief delegates about the investigations.

'The Sri Lankan government has, for almost two years, used the LLRC as its trump card in lobbying against an independent international investigation,' Amnesty said in its report.

'Officials described it as a credible accountability mechanism, able to deliver justice and promote reconciliation. In reality, it's flawed at every level: in mandate, composition and practice,' said Sam Zarifi, the group's Asia Pacific director.

The LLRC was established by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in May 2010, after he made a joint commitment to an accountability process alongside UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Amnesty said its analysis of the commission's publicly available transcripts found that it failed to appropriately investigate allegations of violations by both sides in the conflict - killings, disappearances, shelling of civilian targets such as hospitals, the and use of civilians as shields.

The report said: 'During the LLRC's first field session, the panel's chairman made no mention of human rights abuses, telling witnesses to 'forget the past'.'

The United Nations has said that there was credible evidence of allegations against the security forces and Tamil rebels about war crimes during the final stages of the conflict in the north in which 10,000 civilians were reportedly killed before the conflict ended in May 2009.