Tags
Police officers stand guard outside the Indian High Commission to Sri Lanka after a tyre was set alight by demonstrators during a protest in Colombo yesterday. Sri Lanka has again rejected devolving police powers to the provinces as requested by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and required by the constitution as a means to ease tension with Tamils. -- Reuters
AFP/Colombo
Sri Lanka vowed yesterday it will not co-operate with a United Nations war crimes investigation confirmed by the UN human rights chief, describing the probe as setting a "dangerous precedent."
Sri Lanka told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that it would not assist the investigation into widespread allegations of rights abuses and mass killings of civilians in the final stages of its decades-long separatist war.
UN rights chief Navi Pillay on Tuesday formally announced the setting up of the war crimes investigative panel in line with a United States-initiated resolution passed in March.
Sri Lanka's permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, Ravinatha Aryasinha, said the UN-mandated investigation was harmful to his country and its reconciliation efforts.
"Requesting the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to undertake an investigation with 'assistance from relevant experts' sets a dangerous precedent," Aryasinha said in a statement released to reporters in Colombo.
International rights groups say up to 40,000 civilians were killed by troops in the final stages of Sri Lanka's Tamil separatist war that ended in May 2009 with the elimination of the top Tamil rebel leadership.
Colombo strongly denies that its troops killed any civilians, but instead says the defeated Tamil Tiger guerrillas used civilians as a human shield. Rights groups have accused both sides of targeting civilians.
Aryasinha's remarks came after Pillay urged Colombo to co-operate with the probe.
"I encourage the government to take this opportunity to co-operate with a credible truth-seeking process," she said at the opening of the 26th session of the council.
She said the investigation was expected to "advance accountability, and thus reconciliation," but has not formally named members of the investigative body.
The UN has set aside a budget of nearly $1.5mn for the investigation and the office of the High Commissioner is expected to present a final report by March 2015.
There are no comments.
SPORT Saying goodbye is never easy, especially when you are saying farewell to those that have left a positive impression. That was the case earlier this month when Canada hosted Mexico in a friendly at BC Place stadium in Vancouver.
TECHNOLOGY Some 60mn primary-school-age children have no access to formal education
CULTURE Lekhwiya’s El Arabi scores the equaliser after Tresor is sent off; Tabata, al-Harazi score for QSL champions
ARABIA The Yemeni Minister of Tourism, Dr Mohamed Abdul Majid Qubati, yesterday expressed hope that the 48-hour ceasefire in Yemen declared by the Command of Coalition Forces on Saturday will be maintained in order to lift the siege imposed on Taz City and ease the entry of humanitarian aid to the besieged
ARABIA Some 200 teachers from schools across the country attended Qatar Museum’s (QM) first ever Teachers Council at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) yesterday.
ARABIA The Supreme Judiciary Council (SJC) of Qatar and the Indonesian Supreme Court (SCI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on judicial co-operation, it was announced yesterday.
ECONOMY Sri Lanka is keen on importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar as part of government policy to shift to clean energy, Minister of City Planning and Water Supply Rauff Hakeem has said.
