Reuters , Geneva :
Sri Lanka’s new government won a six-month delay on Monday in the publication of a report on alleged war crimes, after the UN human rights chief praised its willingness to open the country up to scrutiny.
The Sri Lankan government forces have been accused of widespread human rights violations in the final stages of the civil war that ended in May 2009, including most of about 40,000 killings of Tamil civilians in the final weeks of the conflict.
The UN Human Rights Council voted last March to investigate war crimes in Sri Lanka, saying then President Mahinda Rajapaksa had failed to do so properly.
The UN inquiry, advised by three experts led by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, was due to report back next month.
UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said he had recommended deferral of the team’s report until September, and the President of the Human Rights Council had agreed, given “the changing context in Sri Lanka, and the possibility that important new information may emerge which will strengthen the report.”
The new government had given clear commitments indicating it was prepared to cooperate “on a whole range of important human rights issues – which the previous government had absolutely refused to do – and I need to engage with them to ensure those commitments translate into reality.”
Zeid stressed it had been a difficult decision to allow the delay and he vowed not to let wrongdoers off the hook.
“I am acutely aware that many victims … might see this is as the first step towards shelving, or diluting, a report they have long feared they would never see,” he said.
Sri Lanka’s new government won a six-month delay on Monday in the publication of a report on alleged war crimes, after the UN human rights chief praised its willingness to open the country up to scrutiny.
The Sri Lankan government forces have been accused of widespread human rights violations in the final stages of the civil war that ended in May 2009, including most of about 40,000 killings of Tamil civilians in the final weeks of the conflict.
The UN Human Rights Council voted last March to investigate war crimes in Sri Lanka, saying then President Mahinda Rajapaksa had failed to do so properly.
The UN inquiry, advised by three experts led by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, was due to report back next month.
UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said he had recommended deferral of the team’s report until September, and the President of the Human Rights Council had agreed, given “the changing context in Sri Lanka, and the possibility that important new information may emerge which will strengthen the report.”
The new government had given clear commitments indicating it was prepared to cooperate “on a whole range of important human rights issues – which the previous government had absolutely refused to do – and I need to engage with them to ensure those commitments translate into reality.”
Zeid stressed it had been a difficult decision to allow the delay and he vowed not to let wrongdoers off the hook.
“I am acutely aware that many victims … might see this is as the first step towards shelving, or diluting, a report they have long feared they would never see,” he said.
