UN rights chief wants international Lanka war crimes probe

Colombo: The UN human rights chief has recommended an international probe into alleged war crimes during the last phase of in Sri Lanka's civil war against the LTTE in 2009, a media report said today.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has forwarded a 74-page report, the main recommendation of which is that the UN "should establish an international inquiry mechanism to further investigate the alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law and monitor any domestic accountability process".

Sri Lanka has formally replied after being given an advance copy of the report last Wednesday, the local Sunday Times reported.

Among Pillay's recommendations are the repealing of the anti-terrorism law, probing disappearances, criminalisation of disappearances and prosecution of persons attacking minority communities.

There was no immediate response from the Sri Lankan foreign ministry.

The UN has previously alleged that up to 40,000 Tamil civilians may have been killed during the final months of the conflict and has blamed many of the atrocities on government troops, a charge Colombo has repeatedly denied.

The US is expected to move its third resolution in as many years late next month at the UNHRC session censuring Sri Lanka on its lack of progress on human rights accountability and reconciliation with the Tamil minority after the civil war ended. Both the earlier resolutions were supported by India.

Sri Lanka has accused the UN rights body of acting arbitrarily against the country at the behest of the pro-LTTE diaspora in the West.

The government fears that the resolution may eventuallylead to an independent international probe on Sri Lanka's alleged war crimes during the final phase of the military battle that crushed the LTTE in 2009.

Britain has also insisted on an international investigation if Sri Lanka's own mechanisms failed.

Colombo in recent weeks has been heavily lobbying the US asking for more time to ensure ethnic reconciliation between the majority Sinhalese and minority ethnic Tamils.

An estimated 100,000 people were killed in Sri Lanka's separatist ethnic conflict between 1972 and 2009, according to the UN.