Sri Lanka Denounces Push To Open War Inquiry

By Gardiner Harris and Dharisha Bastians -February 26, 2014

Sri Lanka’s government on Tuesday forcefully rejected a call for an international war crimes investigation into the country’s bloody civil war, adding to tensions with the United Nations’ human rights body.

In its official response to a highly critical report released on Monday by the United Nations’ high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, the government said Ms. Pillay’s call for an independent international investigation “reflects the preconceived, politicized and prejudicial agenda which she has relentlessly pursued with regard to Sri Lanka.”

The government dismissed accusations that its vast military presence in the northern part of the country was responsible for a surge in sexual violence against women; that the authorities had failed to return huge swaths of land to Tamil civilians, who are an ethnic minority; and that the government had undermined the independence of Sri Lanka’s judiciary. It also said the reason it had not prosecuted anyone for massacres in which security forces are known to have taken part was that proof had been difficult to obtain.

Read more in the New York Times

British Tamils To Hold Rally Calling On Cameron To Keep His Promise On Sri Lanka Investigation

 February 26, 2014 

British Tamils Forum to hold a rally outside Downing Street in London on Wednesday 26 February 2014, calling on the Prime Minister David Cameron to ensure an international independent investigation takes place into war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide that have been perpetrated against the Tamil Nation since 1948.

David Cameron

At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November 2013, David Cameron called for an international, independent investigation in Sri Lanka if a credible domestic alternative had not begun by March 2014. This week, the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner’s released a reportdeclaring that the Sri Lankan government had failed to ensure a credible and investigation of its own, going on to call for the establishment of an “independent, international inquiry mechanism”.

“Against this backdrop, the British Tamil community is anxious to impress upon Mr Cameron that he has a duty to keep the promise he made to the Tamil people in November – by setting up a robust and independent, international investigation that has long been overdue.” says the BTF.

Venue: Whitehall (opposite entrance to Downing Street) Time: 4.30pm – 7pm, Wednesday 26 February 2014