Jan 16, 2012 COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s ethnic minority Tamil party has accused a government-appointed commission of compromising the secrecy of witnesses who testified on alleged abuses during the country’s civil war.
It also says the commission fell “dramatically short” of international investigative standards.
The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission in its report last month cleared government forces of deliberately targeting civilians, while saying isolated cases needed further investigation, and it accused the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels of routinely violating international humanitarian law.
The Tamil National Alliance, the main political party representing the ethnic minority, said in a report released Sunday that the commission lacked independence, assigned less importance to witnesses’ perspective and did not have a plan for witness protection. It said the commission has failed to fulfill the expectations of the Tamil community and called for an international mechanism to ensure accountability.
It cited an example where a woman who testified on alleged torture and sexual assault by a pro-government paramilitary unit was summoned by police detectives in an intimidating manner.
“The entire incident is an indictment on the LLRC’s processes in terms of witness protection. The incident also reveals that the CID amongst other government entities monitored the public hearings and was equipped to crack down on witnesses who provided potentially damaging evidence against the government and its allies,” it said.
The party also said that the commission contradicts itself when it accepts the government’s explanation that its forces pursued precise targets while also saying that civilian deaths did in fact occur but they were unintentional.
The commission in its report also disregarded serious allegations against the government, such as deliberately undercounting the number of civilians trapped in the war zone in order to deprive them of food and medicine, it said.
Earlier last year, a U.N.-appointed panel said serious abuse allegations on both sides were credible and warranted an international inquiry.
Sri Lanka’s government responded by appointing its own commission and with its report in hand, is expected to argue now that international inquiry is unnecessary.
In response to the commission’s report, the TNA said the “climate of hostility” in Sri Lanka toward those who accuse the government of war crimes “renders any accountability mechanism futile unless witnesses and victims are convinced that testimony implicating senior government functionaries in crimes will not be met with reprisals.”
The party called on the international community “to acknowledge the consistent failure of domestic accountability mechanisms in Sri Lanka and take steps to establish an international mechanism for accountability.”
It said the recommendations of the U.N. panel would “provide a useful and important starting point for further action.”
The United States expressed concerns last month that the report did not fully address all the allegations of serious human rights violations. The State Department called on Sri Lanka to address those shortcomings but stopped short itself of supporting an international inquiry.
The U.S. has previously said that pressure would grow for an international probe if Sri Lanka should fail to investigate alleged abuses properly.
