Lanka allows UN panel visit

Sri Lanka has said it would allow UN investigators looking into war crimes to visit the country if they want to make representation to the government-appointed panel looking into the civil war.

Sri Lanka has said it would allow UN investigators looking into war crimes to visit the country if they want to make representation to the government-appointed panel looking into the civil war.

HT Image

The government had earlier said it would not allow the three-member UN panel, appointed in June by secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, to enter Sri Lanka.

The Mahinda Rajapaksa regime has always said there was no violation of human rights by government troops and dismissed calls for international investigation. Rajapaksa instead appointed the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission to probe the war between 2002 and its end in 2009. The LLRC’s credibility has been questioned by global rights agencies and rights activists.