Sri Lanka labels UN rights panel 'unprecedented and unwarranted'

Sri Lanka's president has rejected the decision by the UN Secretary General to constitute a experts panel to look into human rights abuses in the country's civil war calling it unprecedented and unwarranted and accused the world body  of interfering with the internal affairs of the  country, according to the president's office.

During a telephone conversation, on Thursday March4, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon informed Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa of his plans to ask a panel of experts to advise the world body on accountability in context of allegations of human rights violations and war crimes in Sri Lanka.

"President Mahinda Rajapaksa has pointed out that the intention of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to appoint a panel of experts to advice him on Sri Lanka is totally uncalled for and unwarranted," Rajapaksa's office said in a statement.

Interestingly, instead of denying any wrong doing, the statement by the president's office chose to cite no such action being taken by the world body about other states where military action has led to massive civilian death tolls.

"No such action had been taken about other states with continuing armed conflicts on a large scale, involving major humanitarian catastrophes and causing the deaths of large numbers of civilians due to military action." the statement read.

The statement from the president's office implicitly acknowledges large number of civilian deaths in its war against the Tamil Tigers. Previously the Sri Lankan government has maintained that civilian casualty due to its military action in the Northeast of the island was minimal.

Last month, a former United Nations official with detailed knowledge of events that unfolded in Sri Lanka in the final months of the war said Sri Lanka’s military massacred as many as 40,000 Tamil civilians in the final onslaught against the Liberation Tigers in 2009.

“About 300,000 civilians, plus the Tamil Tiger forces, were trapped in an area of territory about the size of Central Park in New York,” said the former United Nations’ spokesperson in Sri Lanka, Gordon Weiss.

“They were within range of all the armaments that were being used, small and large, being used to smash the Tamil Tiger lines … the end result was that many thousands lost their lives.”

The statement from president's office further said: "the implementation of such an intention would certainly be perceived as an interference with the current general election campaign being held island wide."

"President Rajapaksa reiterated that any appointment of such a panel as intended would compel Sri Lanka to take necessary and appropriate action in that regard.", the statement further said.

It was not clear what these 'appropriate actions' would be.