A Reckoning on Sri Lanka War Crimes
The United Nations Human Rights Council released its report Wednesday on possible war crimes committed during the last years of the Sri Lankan civil war. As many as 40,000 Tamils were killed by the military during the final months of the conflict, which ended in 2009. Citing a “horrific level of violations and abuses” in its report, the council concluded that a “purely domestic court procedure will have no chance of overcoming widespread and justifiable suspicions fueled by decades of violations, malpractice and broken promises.” This is a clear rejection of the proposal made on Monday by Sri Lanka’s foreign minister, Mangala Samaraweera, who told the Council that his government would set up a truth, justice and reconciliation commission, and draft a new constitution.
The Sri Lankan government refused any international investigations during the presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa, who presided over the military’s push to end the Tamil insurgency in 2009. This led the United Nations to proceed in March 2014 without Sri Lanka’s cooperation. When Mr. Rajapaksa was defeated in January elections, the council delayed its report to allow the new government of Maithripala Sirisena to come up with plans for national reconciliation and to work with international investigators.
