Colombo, April 21: Sri Lanka’s main opposition party today asked the government to launch an “internal investigation” into allegations of war crimes committed by Sri Lankan forces during the LTTE war, after a UN report censured it for committing atrocities.
“Sri Lanka’s image has been tarnished by this report. The only way to redeem ourselves as a country is to go into the allegations,” United National Party (UNP) spokesman Lakshman Kiriella told reporters in Colombo.
“We ask the government to start an immediate internal investigation.”
The party blamed the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration for UN censuring of Sri Lanka but backs the government against external interference in the island’s internal affairs.
“We hold the Rajapaksa regime totally responsible for creating an environment for such a report. However as a responsible party which loves the motherland we are totally against the interference of outside forces in the internal affairs of our country”, a statement said.
The UNP’s response was to the report issued by the UN on alleged war crimes by government troops in the war against the LTTE.
The UN report has found “credible allegations” that tens of thousands of civilians were killed and that war crimes were committed during the final months of Sri Lanka’s conflict with the Tamil Tigers.
A leaked excerpt from the report, drafted by a panel appointed by Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, made its way into Sri Lankan newspapers on Monday.
The report called for an independent investigation into the last days of the government’s successful military campaign which ended in May 2009.
The UNP says despite the government assertion no security personnel can be subject to war crimes investigations based on the report by the three member panel. The UNP takes credit for not signing the Rome Convention of the International Court when it was in government in 2002.
“The people of a country can be subject to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court only if the said country is a signatory to the convention”, UNP says adding that despite international pressure Ranil
Wickremesinghe the prime minister and the UNP leader refused to be a signatory to it.
The three member UN panel was headed by Marzuki Darusman. The report was handed over to the government last week. The government has dubbed the report a Western conspiracy to undermine Sri Lanka’s military victory.
——–PTI