Amnesty calls for UN action

Amnesty International has criticised the politicisation of international justice in general.

In Sri Lanka, the organisation called for the United Nations to immediately set up the independent inquiry that the UN Secretary General has been promising.

On the first anniversary of the end of the war in Sri Lanka, Amnesty International repeated its call for the United Nations to set up an immediate and independent investigation into human rights violations committed during the final phase of the war.

The failure to act by the UN has left victims with no access to justice, truth or reparations, the rights organisation charged.

“The UN never revealed what it knew about the final days of the conflict, acknowledged the scale of the abuse that took place, or pushed for accountability,” charged Madhu Malhotra, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Asia-Pacific.

“At the end of the war, atrocities against civilians and enemy combatants appeared to be fueled by a sense that there would be no real international consequences for violating the law,” she said.

Separately, in its annual report Amnesty criticised the increased ‘politicisation of international justice’.

It accused powerful governments of giving more importance to political interest than to the safe guarding of justice and human rights.

With respect to Sri Lanka, the report repeats the allegations of war crimes committed during the final stages of the war and slams the UN for its inaction.

Amnesty claims "power plays" at the UN Human Rights Council led to member states approving a resolution drafted by the Sri Lankan government, complimenting the state on its success against the Tamil Tigers, instead of passing a resolution condemning the Sri Lankan Government.

"By the end of the year, despite further evidence of war crimes and other abuses, no-one had been brought to justice," Amnesty's Secretary General Claudio Cordone said.

"One would be hard pressed to imagine a more complete failure to hold to account those who abuse human rights."

China and India are part of a “coalition of governments” that chose not only to ignore the Rajapaksa Governments targeting of Tamil civilians, but also “passed a [U.N] resolution congratulating the Sri Lankan Government” amid attempts to block “efforts at seeking justice,” Amnesty International Asia Pacific director, Sam Zafiri said in an interview with Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“Unfortunately in 2009, we witnessed one of the worst human rights crises of recent times in Sri Lanka where nearly 300-thousand civilians were caught between the retreating Tamil Tiger and the Sri Lankan armed forces,” Zafiri said.

“Most reports indicate that at least 10-thousand people were killed. There are very credible reports that just may be twice as many if not more than that were also killed” he added.

He pointed out that the international community failed in its obligation to call for accountability with some states even aiding and abetting Sri Lanka’s attempts at ignoring the allegations made against its armed forces.

This highlights the failure of the United Nations as a human rights watchdog, he said.

“When the events in Sri Lanka were playing out, the Human Rights Council, which is the UN body tasked with looking at these issues simply failed to take action” he added.