The first step should be international investigation

by admin
Jun 19, 2011

"The video showing summary executions during the final days of Sri Lanka's war in May 2009 provides clear-cut evidence of war crimes.

"Beyond what is evident in the video, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has gathered information on the likely time and place of the executions, the identity of one of the victims, and the specific army unit likely to have been involved.

“The need for a criminal investigation is obvious, yet the Sri Lankan government has refused to conduct one, even when confronted by such disturbing footage.

"In fact, the Sri Lankan government has increasingly made it clear that it does not intend to investigate this or any other allegations of wrongdoing by its forces during the decades-long conflict with the Tamil Tigers."

- Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, on footage included in Channel 4's documentary on Sri Lanka's war crimes. See her full comment here.

See also by HRW:

UNHRC should ensure accountability (June 2011)

Sri Lanka's deliberate targeting of civilians (April 2011)

India should back UN panel on Sri Lanka war crimes (March 2011)

Sri Lanka will not return to a rights-respecting government soon (Jan 2011)

Evidence of war crimes in Sri Lanka (June 2010)
 

Add new comment

About text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button