Lack of progress risks peace: ICG
Sri Lanka's failure to address its wartime past nearly a decade after its bloody conflict jeopardises any hope of a lasting peace in the ethnically-divided island, a global rights group warned yesterday.
In a new report, the International Crisis Group urged President Maithripala Sirisena to come good on his promise to deliver justice for tens of thousands of war victims or risk renewed conflict.
"Two years into President Sirisena's term, Sri Lanka's fragile hopes for lasting peace and cooperation across party and ethnic lines are imperilled," ICG stated in its report "Sri Lanka's Transition to Nowhere".
Sirisena came to power in January 2015 with strong backing from Tamils, the largest ethnic minority in Sri Lanka, who bore the brunt of the 37-year separatist war that ended in May 2009.
He had promised to investigate atrocities under his predecessor Mahinda Rajapakse, especially in the final months of the war, when Sri Lanka's security forces were accused of massacring up to 40,000 Tamil civilians.
But the president has resisted calls for internationally-backed courts to try generals and soldiers accused of atrocities.
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