A US-led resolution calling for an international probe into allegations that 40,000 civilians were killed at the end of Sri Lanka’s separatist war has been filed with the UN’s top rights body.
In a draft resolution posted on the UN Human Rights Commission’s Web site yesterday, the US endorses the UN human rights chief’s recommendation for an external investigation into alleged war crimes in the final stages of Sri Lanka’s Tamil civil war in May 2009.
NO-FIRE ZONE
The draft welcomed UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay’s recommendation following her visit to Sri Lanka in August last year that there should be an “independent and credible investigation in the absence of a credible national process with tangible results.”
International rights groups as well as UN experts have said there are “credible allegations” that up to 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed after government forces had ordered them into a no-fire zone.
The US draft noted progress in demining, reconstruction and resettling war victims and effectively gave Sri Lanka another year to show results on accountability.
The US draft was backed by Britain, Montenegro, Macedonia and Mauritius. It asked Pillay to report back on progress with an oral submission to the 27th session of the council in March next year and provide a written report by September next year.
The draft resolution also called on Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of military excesses and expressed “serious concern” over continuing reports of human rights violations five years after the end of the decades-long separatist war.
It said that “sexual and gender-based violence, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, torture and violations of the rights to freedom of expression” were continuing in Sri Lanka.
‘PUNCHING BAG’
Sri Lanka has already rejected Pillay’s call for an international probe as an “unwarranted interference” and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has accused Washington of treating Colombo like Muhammad Ali’s “punching bag.”
At least 100,000 people were killed in the 37-year conflict before Rajapakse’s troops crushed the Tamil Tiger rebels.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the