A recent US report into alleged war crimes committed during the last days of the war in
The "report should dispel any doubts that serious abuses were committed during the conflict's final months,” said Brad Adams, HRW’s Asia director.
"Given Sri Lanka's complete failure to investigate possible war crimes, the only hope for justice is an independent, international investigation," he added.
"Concerned governments should use the US State Department report as a clarion call for an international investigation. There are no more excuses for inaction," he said.
"The Sri Lankan government cannot get away with hiding what it did to civilians during the war," Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director for HRW, told IPS.
"And this report helps to show that. It compiles all of the information out there about what happened and it turns out there's a lot of sources."
"If their goal was to win the war and not allow the world to see what was happening to civilian caught in the crossfire then they failed," Malinowski went on to say.
"Human Rights Watch's own research into the fighting found that both sides repeatedly violated the laws of war," said HRW.
"The LTTE used civilians as human shields, employed lethal force to prevent civilians from fleeing to safety, and deployed their forces in densely populated civilian areas. Government forces indiscriminately shelled densely populated areas, including hospitals. "
"Both parties' disregard for civilian life resulted in thousands of civilian casualties."
Human rights groups have complained that the Sri Lankan government has failed to take appropriate action to investigate the allegations of war crimes committed earlier in the year.
"In the absence of any domestic steps to investigate these terrible offences there does need to be, in our view, an international inquiry," said Malinowski.
