Probe Lanka rights violations

The United Nations (UN) must set up an independent investigation into massive human rights violations committed by both the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) forces during the country's civil war, said Amnesty International (AI) on the first anniversary of the end of the conflict, says a press release.
The failure to act rightly has left victims of human rights violations with no access to justice, truth or reparations while hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans displaced at the end of decades-long conflict languish in camps or struggle to rebuild their shattered communities.
“The UN never revealed what it knew about the final days of the conflict, acknowledged the scale of the abuse that took place, or pushed for accountability,” said Madhu Malhotra, deputy director of AI for Asia and the Pacific.
Instead of investigating and prosecuting those suspected of violations during the war and providing reparations to victims, the Sri Lankan government has jailed critics and clamped down on dissent in the past 12 months.
One year on, the situation for civilian communities caught up in the conflict shows no sign of improvement. Some 80,000 people remain in camps and funds for their support are running out.
The rest of the 300,000 displaced civilians, who have tried to resettle remain vulnerable and struggle to survive in communities where homes and infrastructure, were destroyed.