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Allegations of war crimes in Sri Lanka
Source: Agencies |
March 16, 2009, Monday
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LIBERATION Tigers of Tamil Eelam yesterday urged the United Nations to investigate possible war crimes by the military in Sri Lanka. They made no mention of the UN's allegations that the separatists themselves may have committed war crimes.
The government immediately rejected the call by the LTTE and said that it was the separatists who should be probed.
The government says the LTTE is desperate for a cease-fire to re-arm, now that they are cornered in 35 square kilometers of northeastern Sri Lanka with the military aiming to crush the separatist force after a 25-year civil war.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Friday said that both sides in the war may have committed war crimes and urged a suspension of the conflict to let tens of thousands of people trapped in the war zone escape.
LTTE political head B. Nadesan urged the UN to investigate Sri Lanka's forces, a pro-LTTE Website reported yesterday.
"There are thousands of evidences among the civilians, officials and local aid workers. The ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) has witnessed the Sri Lankan attacks on the civilians," the Website quoted him as saying.
The Red Cross is the only aid body allowed a permanent presence in the war zone.
Pillay accused the military of shelling areas full of civilians in the no-fire zones it had set up, and said the LTTE was reportedly shooting people who tried to leave and forcibly recruiting others, including children, to fight.
Nadesan made no reference to Pillay's allegations against the LTTE, which is on US, EU, Canadian and Indian terrorist lists due to hundreds of suicide bombings and assassinations it has carried out since the war began.
The government immediately rejected the call by the LTTE and said that it was the separatists who should be probed.
The government says the LTTE is desperate for a cease-fire to re-arm, now that they are cornered in 35 square kilometers of northeastern Sri Lanka with the military aiming to crush the separatist force after a 25-year civil war.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Friday said that both sides in the war may have committed war crimes and urged a suspension of the conflict to let tens of thousands of people trapped in the war zone escape.
LTTE political head B. Nadesan urged the UN to investigate Sri Lanka's forces, a pro-LTTE Website reported yesterday.
"There are thousands of evidences among the civilians, officials and local aid workers. The ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) has witnessed the Sri Lankan attacks on the civilians," the Website quoted him as saying.
The Red Cross is the only aid body allowed a permanent presence in the war zone.
Pillay accused the military of shelling areas full of civilians in the no-fire zones it had set up, and said the LTTE was reportedly shooting people who tried to leave and forcibly recruiting others, including children, to fight.
Nadesan made no reference to Pillay's allegations against the LTTE, which is on US, EU, Canadian and Indian terrorist lists due to hundreds of suicide bombings and assassinations it has carried out since the war began.
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