The Chief Minister of Northern Province C.V.Wigneswaran on Wednesday welcomed the resolution passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly calling for an international inquiry into war crimes in Sri Lanka and urging the Indian Central government to move a strong resolution at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for such an inquiry.

"We thank Selvi Jayalalithaa for the extreme concern she has shown over our situation. It augurs well for the future. It demonstrates a sense of togetherness that exists between Tamils all over the world," Wigneswaran told the media.

"The resolution of the Tamil Nadu assembly is on the lines of the resolution the Northern Provincial Council passed earlier this month," he added.

On the UN report on war crimes, he said that he was happy that the report called for an Special Court with international judges and prosecutors. Sri Lanka he added does not have judges and prosecutors who can take up war crimes cases.

(The New Indian Express)

UK Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Hugo Swire welcomed the publication of the report from the investigation on Sri Lanka by the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR).

The United Kingdom co-sponsored the resolution in March 2014 that called for the OHCHR’s investigation.

Minister for Asia, Hugo Swire said:

I welcome the publication of this important report into allegations of serious violations and abuses of human rights in Sri Lanka. I am grateful to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, his staff and all who contributed, for the work that went into producing it. The UK has been a strong advocate for the UN’s investigation and was instrumental in securing the resolution that mandated it. We believe it is vital that the legacy of the conflict in Sri Lanka is properly addressed, to allow the country to fulfil its huge potential.

We will study the report’s recommendations closely, and we look forward to working with Sri Lanka and other partners at the UN Human Rights Council in response to it. We hope that we can agree a consensual resolution that will help to address the issues of the past and deliver lasting peace and prosperity for all Sri Lankans".

(gov.uk)

Pivithuru Hela Urumaya leader Udaya Gammanpila said that the legal system of Sri Lanka does not prohibit a special hybrid court from being established to investigate an internal matter of the country.

Speaking to Asian Mirror on Wednesday (16), he said that despite this being the case, the government does not have a mandate to introduce such a tribunal.

The government came to power, promising that a local mechanism will be instituted. As such the government cannot let a hybrid system to be implemented, he said.

Meanwhile, Gammanpila said that he will be introducing an Indemnity Bill to release the armed forces personnel from any accusations on what they did in good faith, in carrying out their duty. According to a judgment made by former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, when there is a clash between international law and internal law of the country, priority should be given to the local law, he elaborated. Therefore if the Indemnity Bill passes, then the proposed hybrid court will not be able to probe in to alleged war crimes, he asserted.

The United Nations today called on Sri Lanka to set up a special court, including international judges and lawyers, to investigate what it called “horrific” abuses committed by both sides during the country’s civil war.

Releasing the Office of the High Commissioner's Investigation Committee on Sri Lanka (OISL) report, the UN Human Rights Chief said that a purely domestic mechanism cannot be trusted due to decades of violation of human rights.

Sri Lanka promised to deliver justice after a United Nations human rights report called on Wednesday for a special court to be set up to prosecute war crimes committed during the country's civil war, Reuters agency reported.

The Foreign Ministry, in a statement to Reuters, said that: "The government of Sri Lanka will ensure dialogue and wide consultations with all stakeholders ... in putting in place mechanisms and measures that will facilitate the right to know, right to justice, reparations and guaranteeing non-recurrence with the aim of achieving reconciliation and durable peace."

It also said that the report's recommendations would "receive due attention of the relevant authorities, including the new mechanisms that are envisaged to be set up".

However, the Foreign Ministry stopped short of addressing the U.N.'s proposal to set up a special court to prosecute those from the government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels suspected of atrocities.

The UN Human Rights Chief Zeid bin Ra'ad Al Hussain urged the establishment of a hybrid tribunal with both domestic and international participation to investigate war crimes, rejecting an entirely domestic process.

(With inputs from Reuters)

The Office of the UN High Commissioner's Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) report was released today by UNHRC Chief Zeid bin Ra'ad Al Hussain. The document blamed both the government and the LTTE for crimes of serious nature and added that a hybrid tribunal with domestic and international participation was needed to investigate the incidents.

The United Nations on Wednesday called on Sri Lanka to set up a special court, including international judges and lawyers, to investigate what it called “horrific” abuses committed by both sides during the country’s 26-year civil war, and by the government in the suppression of critics and opponents after it ended.

The recommendations came in a landmark report released on Wednesday, which found that both government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels had committed “the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole,” which it said could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“Our investigation has laid bare the horrific level of violations and abuses that occurred in Sri Lanka, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, harrowing accounts of torture and sexual violence, recruitment of children and other grave crimes,” Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the United Nations’ top human rights official, said in a statement accompanying the report.

The creation of a special, hybrid court, involving Sri Lankan and international jurists, prosecutors and investigators, was just one proposed step in a process of far-reaching institutional reform that the United Nations said would be essential to achieving the reconciliation that has eluded the country since the civil war ended in 2009.

The 261-page report and a 19-page overview were produced by a core team of seven investigators with advice from three prominent international judicial experts. It followed years of resistance to an independent investigation by Sri Lanka’s former president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who commanded the armed forces in the closing years of the civil war.

The election of President Maithripala Sirisena in January and the formation of a new government ushered in “a new political context in Sri Lanka which offers ground for hope,” Mr. al-Hussein said.

But though the report said the new government’s offer to introduce a domestic process for reconciliation was “commendable,” it bluntly asserted that circumstances in Sri Lanka would “require more than a domestic mechanism.”

Sri Lanka’s criminal justice system “is not yet ready or equipped,” it said, to conduct a credible investigation that would deal with the legacy of anger and skepticism left by the previous government, as well as the sheer scale and gravity of the violations committed during the conflict.

The report documents widespread killings by security forces and Tamil Tiger rebels during the civil war and the disappearance of tens of thousands of people, including large numbers who were never seen again after surrendering to government forces at the war’s end.

A particularly shocking finding, the report said, was “the extent to which sexual violence was committed against detainees, often extremely brutally, by the Sri Lankan security forces” during and after the conflict, with both men and women victimized.

Torture by the security forces was widespread, systematic and premeditated, particularly in the aftermath of the conflict, the report said, describing centers equipped with metal bars for beating, barrels of water for waterboarding and pulleys for suspending victims.

For their part, the Tamil Tigers abducted adults as part of a strategy of forced recruitment that intensified toward the end of the war, and they made extensive use of children in armed conflict, the report said.

“Ending the impunity enjoyed by the security forces and associated paramilitary groups, as well as holding to account surviving members” of the Tamil Tigers “will require political will” to ensure that such crimes do not recur, the report said.

(NY Times)

UN Human Rights Commissioner Prince Zeid bin Ra'ad Al Hussain said that the UNHRC report on Sri Lanka does not say that genocide was committed.

Speaking at the release of the Office of the UN High Commissioner's Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) report in Geneva, the UN Human Rights Commissioner said that a hybrid court was needed to investigate the alleged incidents, with the participation of foreign experts.

The OISL report was due in March this year, but was delayed six months by the UN Human Rights Commissioner to give the country's new government a chance to cooperate with investigators.

The UN Human Rights Commissioner Zeid bin Ra'ad Al Hussain said that a special hybrid court with domestic and international participation should be set up to investigate cases of war crimes during the Sri Lankan Civil War.

Releasing the Office of the High Commissioner's Investigation Committee on Sri Lanka (OISL) report, he said that that both sides were likely to have committed war crimes during the Sri Lankan civil war.

The UN Human Rights Chief also said that a purely domestic mechanism cannot be trusted due to decades of violation of human rights.

Exact nature of hybrid court can't be spelt out now, the UNHRC Chief said. However, he added that international judges, prosecutors involvement would be necessary.

New Zealand's government on Wednesday welcomed the Sri Lankan government's move to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to help the country recover from its decades-long civil war.

"New Zealand welcomes the measures announced by the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, Mangala Samaraweera at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva this week," Foreign Minister Murray McCully said in a statement.

"They constitute a significant step towards genuine reconciliation and political devolution for Sri Lankans, something New Zealand has been encouraging," said McCully.

"The policies announced, such as establishing an office to assist people who lost family members in the civil war and negotiating a new constitution that reflects Sri Lanka's ethnic and religious diversity, demonstrate a serious and constructive approach to resolving some of the most challenging issues facing the country," he said.

"We expect these measures will help reconciliation and devolution, particularly among Tamil communities in the north and east of the country."

(Xinhua)

The UNHRC report on Sri Lanka will be released today at 10.30am Geneva time (2pm Sri Lanka time) at a press conference chaired by UN Human Rights Commissioner Prince Zeid bin Ra'ad Al Hussain.

 The Office of the UN High Commissioner’s Investigation on Sri Lanka or OISL was launched following the mandate given to the then UN High Commissioner on Human Rights in March 2014.

The report had initially been scheduled to be published in March this year. However, the UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein had recommended it be delayed for six months to give the country's new government a chance to cooperate with investigators.

Making his speech at the inaugural session of the UNHRC 30th Session this Monday, the High Commissioner said that the findings of the report "are of the most serious nature."