The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Wednesday called for the establishment of a special tribunal combining local and international judges to try crimes committed in Sri Lanka during the conflict with the Tamil Tigers.
Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein relies on a UN-mandated expert report denouncing “tens of thousands of enforced disappearances” and describing the multiple crimes committed during more than 30 years of struggle between the central government and Tamil Tiger separatists. The conflict claimed more than 100,000 lives and ended in 2009 with the crushing of the rebellion.
The report recommends the establishment of a “hybrid special tribunal incorporating international judges, prosecutors, lawyers and investigators,” considering that a national court would have “no chance of overcoming the suspicions fuelled by decades” of conflict.
“Given that war crimes and crimes against humanity can only be proven in court, one of the report’s most significant recommendations is the proposal for a special hybrid tribunal,” Zeid said.
“This report laid bare the horrific level of violations and abuses including indiscriminate bombing, extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances. It contains frightening accounts of torture and sexual violence,” according to the High Commissioner.
war crimes and against humanity
The 250-page document notes “serious violations between 2002 and 2011” with “strong indications that war crimes and against humanity were likely committed by both parties in conflict”.”
“Enforced disappearances have affected tens of thousands of Sri Lankans for decades (…) There is reasonable evidence to believe that these enforced disappearances were carried out as part of a broad and systematic attack on the civilian population,” the experts said.
In particular, they mention the disappearance of many people who had gone to the final phase of the war and have still not been found. The report also denounces “the extent of sexual violence against detainees, which is extremely brutal” and affects both men and women.
The recruitment of children, sometimes under the age of 15, among Tamil Tiger fighters but also by the paramilitary group Karuna, which supported the government, is highlighted.
For the first time, the UN also ruled on the death in 2006 of 17 local members of the French NGO Action Against Hunger (ACF) and blamed government forces.
Colombo promised to pay “the necessary attention” to the report, saying he was open to dialogue with the High Commissioner for Human Rights, but refrained from accepting an international investigation.
Investigators, including military experts, were unable to attend and witnesses were intimidated by the authorities but based their investigation on more than 3,000 written testimonies, documents and confidential satellite images.
“Sri Lankans seeking justice have waited a long time for this report, and it must now start the process for those who must be held accountable,” said David Griffith of Amnesty International in Geneva, who called on the Council to adopt a resolution to this effect.
The report’s recommendations go much further than Monday’s proposal to the UN Human Rights Council by Sri Lanka’s new government, which announced the forthcoming establishment of a war reparations office and a truth commission.
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, elected in January, promised to encourage reconciliation and investigate alleged crimes committed by the army during the military campaign that ended the Tamil rebellion in 2009, when the former strongman, Mahinda Rajapakse, was in power.
“I agree with the High Commissioner that we cannot move forward without accountability. The Sri Lankan government seems to want to move forward by forgetting the past, the victims believe that we cannot move forward without ignoring the need for accountability,” said Sandrya Eknaligoda, who testified for the report on her husband’s disappearance, from Sri Lanka.
