Sri Lankans react angrily to UN’s call to pursue wartime crimes

Reuters: Residents of the Sri Lankan capital on Friday condemned the United Nations for criticising the country over human rights violations and failing to heal the wounds of its nearly 30-year long civil war.

In a resolution on Thursday 21 March, the UN urged Sri Lanka to carry out credible investigations into killings and disappearances during the war, especially in the brutal final stages in 2009.

The organisation voiced concern at reports of continuing violations including killings, torture, curbs on the right to freedom of expression, and reprisals against activists and journalists.

Resolutions such as that brought by the United States are not binding, but the scrutiny by the UN Human Rights Council maintains pressure on the Government to prosecute crimes committed in the conflict against Tamil Tiger rebels.

Nevertheless, residents in Colombo reacted angrily to news of the UN resolution. 34-year-old taxi driver Sanjeeva Kuruvitage said that “What America wants is to control the whole world. They want all the countries to be under them.

“That plan has succeeded with the resolution passing in Geneva. But Sinhala and Tamil people of this country will never allow the Americans to interfere in our country.” The United States is one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

“The other countries in Asia must be aware, that American will do to them what they did to us. Countries like China and Russia must be alert to this,” said 57-year-old school Principal Tissa Jagoda.

Tens of thousands of civilians were killed in the final months of a war that began in 1983 as Government troops advanced on the last stronghold of the Tamil Tiger rebels fighting for an independent homeland, a UN panel has said.

The panel said it had ‘credible allegations’ that troops and the Tamil Tigers both carried out atrocities and war crimes, but said the Government bore most of the responsibility for the deaths. The government rejects the allegation.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a report last month that Sri Lanka was failing to investigate alleged wartime atrocities committed by Government forces and, that activists and opposition politicians were still being killed or abducted.

The 47-member Geneva forum adopted the text with 25 countries in favour, including India. There were 13 against, including Pakistan. Eight abstained and one delegation was absent.