In an interview with Channel 4 news, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, has reiterated her call for an international independent investigation into allegations of war crimes and stated that Sri Lanka would be reviewed once more at the upcoming UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva.
The High Commissioner also praised Channel 4’s documentary “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields”, commenting,
"Let me say how much Channel 4's information is appreciated because you have brought this to the fore. I myself mandated by the Human Rights Council have been filing reports on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka - we will be reviewing that again in March, but I have consistently called for a credible international investigation particularly of the occurrences in the last few days of the conflict".
Despite Sri Lanka’s refusal to allow any international investigation take place, Pillay went on to say,
“We want to provide them with expert investigative assistance, we are ready to provide this kind of assistance and I'm really disappointed it has not been taken up."
"It's particularly bad because this was government forces firing on civilians indiscriminately - they were shelled and the normal responsibility of governments is to protect people - not to kill them."
Talking on the UN’s own actions at the time she went on to say,
"I think that is deeply disturbing because it's a repetition of the criticism that was levelled against the United Nations during the Rwandan genocide and there was a report done after that with recommendations."
"Now, to the credit of the secretary general he set up the Petrie Commission to look at the UN's failures in handling the Sri Lankan conflict and I very much encouraged that, I've read the report and I'm urging now the United Nations to take steps to come up with action plans to implement those recommendations so that the United Nations doesn't repeat these kind of failures."
