COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

SRI LANKA 7 MARCH 2012
contested by the Sri Lankan Government – as ‗textbook examples of extrajudicial
executions.
―‘I do think a broader process is necessary to establish whether these are crimes
against humanity [or] possibly war crimes that took place,‘ he said, adding it was
important to determine if the killings were part of wider pattern of systematic attacks
against civilians or prisoners of war.‖
See also The conflict‘s legacy below
THE CONFLICT’S LEGACY
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3.48 The Human Rights Watch (HRW) World Report 2012, Sri Lanka 58 , released on 24
January 2012, noted that:
―The aftermath of Sri Lanka‘s quarter century-long civil war, which ended in May 2009
with the defeat of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), continued to
dominate events in 2011. In April [2011] United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
released a report by a panel of experts that concluded that both government forces and
the LTTE conducted military operations ‗with flagrant disregard for the protection, rights,
welfare and lives of civilians and failed to respect the norms of international law.‘ The
panel recommended the establishment of an international investigative mechanism. Sri
Lankan officials responded by vilifying the report and the panel members.
―The government has failed to conduct credible investigations into alleged war crimes
by security forces, dismissing the overwhelming body of evidence as LTTE
propaganda.‖
―The lack of investigation was especially conspicuous with regard to several incidents
featured in a June 2011 program on the British television station Channel 4, showing
gruesome images of what appear to be summary executions of captured and bound
combatants. Incredibly, the government repeatedly has dismissed the footage a [sic]
fabricated despite several independent expert reports finding it authentic.‖
3.49 The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Country Report Sri Lanka, July 2011 59 reported:
―A controversial documentary titled ‗Sri Lanka‘s Killing Fields‘ was aired by the UK's
Channel 4 television station in June [2011]. The programme documented the final
weeks of the civil war, and included footage of government soldiers executing bound
prisoners, naked women being dumped into the back of a truck and civilian hospitals
being shelled. The Sri Lankan government has rebutted the film's allegations, claiming
that the footage was either distorted or fabricated. However, the government's Lessons
Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, which is looking into abuses committed during
the final years of the war, has said that it will look into the incidents portrayed.
58 Human Rights Watch, World Report 2012, Sri Lanka , released on 24 January 2012
http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/wr2012.pdf date accessed 1 February 2012
59 Economist Intelligence Unit, Country Report Sri Lanka, July 2011
http://www.eiu.com/index.asp?layout=displayIssueArticle&issue_id=788269263&article_id=110826929
5&rf=0 [subscription only] date accessed 6 January 2012
36 The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February 2012.
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section
to 2 March 2012.