UN statement unsubstantiated - govt.

Posted by Lasantha Janaka on Saturday, March 14, 2009 Comments: (0)


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Minister of Human Rights Mahinda Samarasinghe says certain statements made by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay have been based on pro LTTE website 'Tamil Net'.

"We are disappointed and dismayed over the unprofessional statement," said the minister talking to media on Saturday.

Commissioner Pillay's statement on Friday said more than 2,800 civilians may have been killed and 7,000 wounded in the fighting over the last two months.

Minister Samarasinghe said that these figures correspond to the figures appeared on pro-LTTE website 'Tamilnet' , and the UN report is ,therefore, unsubstantiated.

The minister also denied that government forces were firing into a safe zone.

He said that UN could have consulted the Sri Lankan authorities, the UN resident representative based in Sri Lanka and himself, as the minister of human rights before making such statements about the war situation in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka says kills 32 rebels in heavy combat

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Sri Lankan troops killed 32 Tamil Tiger separatists in intense fighting in what the government says are the final battles of Asia's longest-running civil war, the military said on Friday.

The battles came as the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights warned both sides may have committed war crimes and urged a suspension of fighting to let tens of thousands of civilians escape. [ID:nLD487098]

Sri Lanka's military has surrounded the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a 37 sq km (15 sq miles) of the island nation's northeastern coast and is fighting to deal a death blow to a civil war that has raged off and on since 1983.

"Fighting continued in Puthukudyiruppu. Troops killed 32 LTTE terrorists from yesterday's fighting and recovered 15 dead bodies," military Spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.

Combat operations now are concentrated on the last town the separatist LTTE holds and commanders say nearly all of the Tamil Tigers' top guerrillas including leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran are in that area, with some personally commanding the battles.

Troops are inside the town and have just a few kilometres to go before they reach a lagoon on its eastern edge, across from which is a 12-km coastal strip set up as a no-fire zone. Tens of thousands of civilians are inside the area.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, an ethnic Tamil raised in South Africa, in a statement said the government had shelled designated no-fire zones and that the LTTE's treatment of people should be investigated for war crimes.

Sri Lankan government officials could not immediately be reached for comment, but the government has repeatedly rejected reports it has fired on civilians.

It says it has stopped returning fire on LTTE guns located in civilian areas and troops are taking more casualties as a result.

The Tigers could not be reached for comment but the pro-LTTE web site www.TamilNet.com again accused the military of shelling and killing civilians, saying at least 35 civilians were killed.

The military denied the report.

The government says 70,000 people are inside the no-fire zone, while the Red Cross says there are 150,000. The military says about 38,900 people have fled LTTE areas this year. (Editing by Bryson Hull and Sanjeev Miglani)

UN suspects Sri Lanka war crimes

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Civilians, women and children included, are
bearing the brunt of the fighting [AFP]

The United Nations high commissioner for human rights has voiced deep concern over the plight of civilians in war-ravaged Sri Lanka, saying both the government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) may be committing war crimes.

Navi Pillay on Friday also urged both the sides to halt hostilities to allow the evacuation of civilians trapped by fighting in the country's northeast.

Pillay said the government had repeatedly shelled the designated "no-fire" zones for civilians and also cited reports that the Tigers were holding civilians as human shields and had shot some as they tried to flee.

"Certain actions being undertaken by the Sri Lankan military and by the LTTE may constitute violations of international human rights and humanitarian law," Pillay said in a statement.

"The world today is ever sensitive about such acts that could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity," said the former UN war crimes judge, who is a member of the Tamil ethnic group and grew up in South Africa.

Focus: Sri Lanka
Q&A: Sri Lanka's civil war
The history of the Tamil Tigers
Timeline: Conflict in Sri Lanka
'High cost' of victory over Tigers
Caught in the middle
The Sri Lankan government has been quick to reject the high commissioner's statement.

"I must say we are both disappointed and dismayed by the assertions made in the statement," Mahinda Samarasinghe, Sri Lanka's disaster management and human rights minister, told Al Jazeera.

Samarasinghe said Pillay seemed to have taken her "facts and figures" from LTTE-linked sources and said that Colombo's ambassador in Geneva would meet the high commissioner on Monday to detail the government's position.

Sri Lankan government forces and the separatist rebels have been engaged in heavy fighting, resulting in significant civilian casualties.

Fighting has been particularly heavy in the last few months with government forces launching a major offensive against the LTTE .

'Truly shocking'

Pillay called on Sri Lanka's government to grant full access to UN and other aid agencies to monitor human rights and humanitarian conditions amid reports of "severe malnutrition" among those trapped.

"The current level of civilian casualties is truly shocking and there are legitimate fears that the loss of life may reach catastrophic levels, if the fighting continues in this way," Pillay said.

"The brutal and inhuman treatment of civilians by the LTTE is utterly reprehensible and should be examined to see if it constitutes war crimes."

Walter Kaelin, the UN secretary-general's representative on the human rights of internally displaced persons, also voiced grave concern at reports of LTTE rebels using civilians as shields and preventing them from leaving the conflict zone.

Kaelin also stressed that Sri Lanka's government must protect and assist civilians fleeing the fighting, as well as avoid confining them to camps.

Civilian casualties

But P Ramasamy, a former member of the LTTE-run Tamil constitutional affairs committee, said that the situation "is more complex than meets the eye of the UN high commissioner of human rights".

"While the fighting is going on the maximum damage is inflicted on the civilians by the Sri Lankan armed forces," he told Al Jazeera.

Sri Lanka's military has encircled the LTTE in a mere 37sq km of the island nation's northeastern coast and says it is close to dealing a death blow to a civil war that has raged off and on since 1983.

More than 2,800 civilians may have been killed and more than 7,000 wounded since January 20, according to a range of credible sources. Many had been inside the "no-fire" zones, the UN says.

The LTTE is seeking a separate homeland in the country's north and east for the ethnic Tamils, accusing the Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lankan government of marginalising the Tamil minority.