Bringing justice to Sri Lanka's victims

Posted By Colum Lynch  Friday, February 24, 2012

During the past year, the U.N. has launched independent investigations into possible war crimes in Ivory Coast, Libya and Syria.

But in Sri Lanka, where as many as 40,000 civilians were killed in the final phases of the country's civil war, the U.N. has been unable to muster support for an independent investigation into atrocities.

So why has Sri Lanka been different? The scale of killing -- perhaps the worst spasm of violence committed by any government under U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's and PresidentBarack Obama's watch -- far surpasses the death toll from government crackdowns during the Arab Spring. And a U.N. panel established by Ban to assess Sri Lanka's commitment to hold perpetrators of mass crimes accountable has concluded that the government has failed after three years to demonstrate that it is prepared to conduct a credible accounting.    Full Story>>>