Agenzia Fides

Colombo (Fides Service) - The accusations of "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity" against the Tamil people of Sri Lanka will be discussed, starting from May 30, at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva . As reported by NGOs accredited to the UN Council to Fides, the allegations are contained in a report prepared by a team of UN observers, delivered to the UN General Secretary, Ban Ki Moon, who has submitted it to the UN Council in Geneva. The expert group that drafted the report, sent to Fides, is composed of Marzuki Darusman (Indonesia), Steven Ratner (USA) and Yasmin Sook (South Africa). The three began the research, study and listening to witnesses in Sri Lanka in September 2010, completed in March 2011.
The Report confirms that the civil war which ended in May 2009, produced over 40 thousand casualties among the Tamil population, 300 thousand internally displaced persons and severe hardships and human rights violations for more than 2.7 million people, comprising the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka.
The working group visited places, cities, refugee camps, talked with military leaders, civil and humanitarian Organizations. The report does not hesitate to criticize the attitude that the UN itself, especially in the last part of the conflict, the more violent, "did not do enough to avoid civilian casualties."
The report refutes the official version of the Sri Lankan government, which speaks of "no civilian casualties," and brings "credible evidence" of "a series of violations of international humanitarian law and human rights, committed by the government of Sri Lanka but also from Tamil militants from the LTTE (Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam). "
In particular, we refer to the last phase of the civil war (between September 2008 and May 2009), with the advanced stages of military force in the Vanni area, which caused numerous civilian casualties and more than 330mila people trapped in an area of open war.
The allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity affect the government (murders, mutilations, rapes, torture, racial persecution) and the LTTE, accused of rape, torture, forced labor, recruitment of child soldiers, killing of civilians. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 26/5/2011