|
UN rights chief points to war crimes in Sri Lanka
Both sides in Sri Lanka's conflict may have committed war crimes and must suspend fighting to let thousands of civilians escape, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said on Friday. Warning that the loss of life may reach "catastrophic levels", she urged the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels to suspend hostilities to allow evacuation of up to 180,000 civilians trapped on the northeastern coast. Pillay said the government had repeatedly shelled the designated "no-fire" zones for civilians and also cited reports that the separatist guerrillas were holding civilians as human shields and had shot some as they tried to flee. "Certain actions being undertaken by the Sri Lankan military and by the LTTE may constitute violations of international human rights and humanitarian law," Pillay said in a statement issued in Geneva. "The world today is ever sensitive about such acts that could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity," added the former UN war crimes judge, who grew up in a poor Indian neighbourhood in Durban as a member of South Africa's Tamil minority. Sri Lanka's military has encircled the LTTE Tamil Tigers in a mere 37-sq km of the island nation's northeastern coast and is fighting to deal a death blow to a civil war that has raged off and on since 1983. Military's claim: Also on Friday, the defence ministry said at least 32 Tamil Tiger rebels have died in the latest push by Sri Lankan government troops into the rebels' shrinking fiefdom. The ministry said the rebels were killed in battles around the small town of Puthukkudiriruppu in the north east, where the LTTE have been hemmed into a small jungle area. It said the clashes since Thursday also led to the recovery of a large haul of arms and ammunition. No details on government casualties were given. There was no comment from the LTTE, and no independent confirmation of the claims -- as Sri Lanka bars independent journalists and most aid workers from the north. Posted by: Fred 2009-03-14 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=264951 |