By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Western countries kept up pressure on Sri
Lanka on Thursday to prosecute killings of civilians and other crimes committed
in its 30-year civil war and to investigate continuing grave violations.
Britain and the United States said that accountability must be established for
serious breaches in the conflict that ended in 2009 and they voiced concern at
the latest attacks on journalists, activists and lawyers.
Sri Lanka was in the dock at the United Nations Human Rights Council, a
Geneva-based forum that regularly examines the records of all U.N. member
states and issues recommendations.
U.S. ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe said Sri Lanka must "end
impunity for human rights violations and fulfil legal obligations regarding
accountability by initiating independent and transparent investigations...into
alleged violations of international law and hold those found culpable to
account". "Former conflict zones remain militarised and the military
continues to encroach upon daily civilian and economic affairs," she said,
while torture, extra-judicial killings, disappearances, and threats to freedom
of expression persist.
British ambassador Karen Pearce said there should be no impunity for
attacks on journalists, rights defenders and lawyers "nor reprisals
against any individual including for cooperating with U.N. mechanisms".
International investigators, whose findings have been rejected by the
Sri Lankan authorities, have said the army committed large-scale abuses and was
responsible for many civilian deaths in the final stages of the war against
Tamil Tiger rebels.
Mahinda Samarasinghe, special envoy of President Mahinda Rajapaksa on
human rights, defended his government's record and work of the Lessons
Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).
"Protection of civilian life was a key factor in the formulation of
government policy for carrying out military operations and the deliberate
targeting of civilians formed no part of that strategy," Samarasinghe told
the U.N. forum. "If reliable evidence is available in respect of any
contravention of the law, the domestic legal process will be set in
motion," he said.
A court of inquiry is investigating more than 50 incidents referred to
in the LLRC report issued a year ago, he said. "Investigations cover
whether or not any attacks were carried out by the Army on civilians, on
hospitals or in the no-fire zones," he said.
The government was probing thousands of cases of missing persons.
"Outstanding allegations must and will be thoroughly investigated and any
offenders brought to book," he said.
Former combatants, including Tamil child soldiers, have been
rehabilitated and reintegrated into society, while demining of farm land
continued, Samarasinghe said. "If this is not clear progress, I fail to
understand what is," he said.
Referring to attacks on activists, he said: "I must state with the
utmost firmness that these alleged attacks are no part of government policy to
stifle criticism, activism or dissent".
A Geneva-based body that monitors legal matters, the International
Commission of Jurists (ICJ), said earlier on Thursday that Sri Lanka's
government had made it all but impossible for victims of rights abuses to get
justice. [ID:nL5E8LVHFI]
President Rajapaksa's ruling party moved a motion in parliament on
Thursday to impeach the chief justice for violating the constitution,
signalling a deepening rift between the government and the judiciary.
[ID:nL3E8M11RV]
U.S. ambassador Donahoe said that especially in light of the news of the
efforts to impeach Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, Sri Lanka must
"strengthen judicial independence by ending government interference with
the judicial process".
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Stephen Powell)
