United Nations urges Sri Lanka war crimes court

MUMBAI, India – Detailing “horrific levels” of violence and likely crimes against humanity in Sri Lanka’s long civil war, the United Nations’ human rights commissioner called Wednesday for a hybrid court with worldwide prosecutors and judges to investigate and punish perpetrators.

Instead, it urged the country to establish a “hybrid special court”, including global judges, prosecutors, lawyers and investigators, to probe war-related abuses.

The report has comprehensively studied cases of Human rights violations by the Sri Lankan Armed forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) during the last phase of the civil war that was fought in 2009.

The mistrust between the two communities goes beyond to the riots in 1983, when a faction of the majority Sinhalese killed more than 3,000 innocent Tamil civilians across the country.

Sri Lanka said it “will ensure dialogue and wide consultations with all stakeholders especially the victims of the conflict, communities, political parties, civil society representatives, the military as well as the High Commissioner and his office, bilateral partners, and other global organizations in putting in place mechanisms and measures that will facilitate the right to know, right to justice, reparations and guaranteeing non-recurrence with the aim of achieving reconciliation and durable peace to ensure long-term progress of all its citizens”. “It is crucial that this historic opportunity for truly fundamental change is not allowed to slip”.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena came to power in January promising reconciliation and accountability for alleged atrocities committed by troops under the command of then-president Mahinda Rajapakse.

It also referred to corruption within the system.

The report also says “there are reasonable grounds to believe the Sri Lankan security forces and paramilitary groups associated with them were implicated in unlawful killings carried out in a widespread manner against civilians and other protected persons [including] Tamil politicians, humanitarian workers and journalists were particularly targeted during certain periods, but [also] ordinary civilians”.

Unveiling a long-awaited report aimed at helping Sri Lanka reconcile, Zeid Raad al-Hussein pointed to “horrific” abuses including torture, executions, sexual abuse by security forces; and suicide attacks, assassinations and recruitment of child soldiers by rebels.

“It would be unthinkable for member states to backtrack on the recommendation of their own inquiry for a justice process with strong global participation through a hybrid court” said Sonya Sceats, policy director at the organisation Freedom from Torture. Sri Lanka promised on Wednesday to deliver justice after the United Nations report was issued, but stopped short of directly addressing the UN’s proposal to set up a special court.