UN says Lanka has 'historic opportunity' to end impunity, deliver justice

(UN) Sri Lanka’s Government has a “historic opportunity” to end decades of impunity and deliver justice for victims of past violations, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) has said, urging sweeping reforms to address crimes committed during and after the country’s civil war.

- 

The 26-year conflict, from 1983 to 2009, pitted Government forces against the separatist LTTE — more commonly referred to as the Tamil Tigers — who sought an independent state for the island’s Tamil minority in the north and east.

The civil war claimed an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 lives, and thousands more were forcibly disappeared, their fates still unknown. Hundreds of thousands were also displaced from their homes.

The final months were among the bloodiest, with tens of thousands of civilians killed in indiscriminate shelling, extrajudicial executions, and other violations of international law committed by both sides.

In a new report issued on Wednesday, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said the Government’s pledges to deliver justice, restore the rule of law, and eliminate discrimination and divisive politics must finally yield concrete results.