Rights body calls for UN inquiry in Sri Lanka

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon should act on a UN panel's recommendations to establish an international independent investigation into abuses during the civil war in Sri Lanka, Humar Rights Watch said in a statement Tuesday.

Ban's statement on April 25, 2011, indicating the need for Sri Lankan government consent or action by an intergovernmental body should not place an unnecessary obstacle to establishing a justice mechanism, Human Rights Watch said.

The panel's report, published on April 25, 2011, concluded that both government forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) conducted military operations "with flagrant disregard for the protection, rights, welfare and lives of civilians and failed to respect the norms of international law" during the final months of Sri Lanka's 26-year-long war, the statement said. The panel also concluded that "Sri Lanka's efforts, nearly two years after the end of the war, fall dramatically short of international standards on accountability and fail to satisfy either the joint commitment of the President of Sri Lanka and the Secretary-General, or Sri Lanka's legal duties."