• Friday, April 19, 2024

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Sri Lanka Tamils demand foreign judges in war crimes probe

A female de-miner works to clear mines in Muhamalai, one of the biggest minefields in the world, on March 3, 2019 in Muhamalai, Sri Lanka. As the 10 year anniversary of the Sri Lankan Civil War approaches, de-mining continues across the north of the country. At the HALO Trust, one of the NGOs working to remove mines in the north, 44% of their staff working in the minefields are female, of which 62% are the primary breadwinners of their family, and 37% have had relatives who were injured, killed, or went missing during the civil war. As of 31st January 2019, HALO Sri Lanka has cleared 309,354 mines and unexploded ordnance in Sri Lanka. The war was fought from 1983 until 2009 between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which fought to create an independent Tamil state, and the Sri Lankan military. (Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images)

By: Lakshmi PS

Sri Lanka’s main minority Tamil party demanded Friday that foreign judges be included in a special court to investigate war crimes, a day after the UN again granted Colombo more time for a much-delayed probe.

Government troops have been accused of killing at least 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians in the final months of the island nation’s 37-year civil war in 2009. No one has been prosecuted for war crimes in the decade since.

With no measurable progress, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday gave Sri Lanka two more years to set up a credible investigation, the second time it has been given an extension.

The probe is meant to include a special “hybrid” court involving both local and foreign judges and prosecutors.

But on Wednesday in Geneva, Sri Lankan foreign minister Tilak Marapana said the country’s constitution did not allow foreign judges.

This prompted uproar from Tamil National Alliance (TNA), with lawmaker Mathiaparanan Abraham Sumanthiran threatening on Friday to report Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“If the government does not agree to a hybrid court, Sri Lanka will have to face a tribunal which will be entirely international,” Sumanthiran said in parliament.

He said Tamils, who were the most affected by the separatist war that claimed over 100,000 lives, will not accept an accountability mechanism that did not involve outsiders.

“The state of Sri Lanka cannot be an independent arbiter,” he said.

Colombo’s no-holds-barred military campaign wiped out the leadership of Tamil Tiger rebels and ended the war in May 2009.

UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet warned this week that Sri Lanka risked slipping back into conflict unless it addressed the “worst crimes” of the war.

She noted that Colombo was yet to set up the special judicial mechanism as promised four years ago.

(AFP)

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