Canada should mount a domestic search for Sri Lankan war criminals and lean hard on the South Asian country to submit to an outside probe of atrocities on both sides during the last months of its war against the Tamil Tigers, says a global conflict-prevention group led by Canadian Louise Arbour.
In a report released Monday, a year after the war’s end, the International Crisis Group cited “reasonable grounds to believe the Sri Lankan security forces committed war crimes” by intentionally shelling civilians, hospitals and humanitarian operations in a final push to destroy the separatist Tigers. In turn, the Tigers reportedly shot civilians who tried to flee rebel areas and held others captive in a bid to raise international pressure for a ceasefire.
The Brussels-based group, funded by donors and governments including Canada’s to study armed conflict and how to avert it, called for a United Nations-backed inquiry to account for a Sri Lankan government victory over the Tigers that came “at the cost of immense civilian suffering and an acute challenge to the laws of war.”
International Crisis Group report
Conflict-prevention group alleges war crimes in Sri Lanka
Canada urged to probe Sri Lankan war crimes - The Globe and Mail
