Ban sends expert panel’s report to UN Human Rights Council, launches probe into UN’s conduct

by admin
Sep 12, 2011

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has sent the UN panel of experts’ report on wartime mass killings in Sri Lanka to the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, the Associated Press reports.

The report (see here) concluded that tens of thousands of people were killed in the last five months of Sri Lanka's civil war, primarily by government troops.

UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said the Sri Lankan government was informed that the report was sent to the rights council and to UN human rights chief Navi Pillay, but that it declined to respond.

Instead Sri Lanka "has produced its own reports on the situation in the north of Sri Lanka, which [is] being forwarded along with the (UN) panel of experts report," Nesirky said.

Ban's referral came the day the Human Rights Council opened its three-week session in Geneva.

Also, responding to the panel's recommendation that the UN review its own actions during the final months of the war, Nesirky said Ban has asked former UN Population Fund chief Thoraya Obaid to conduct the review "which should begin soon."

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