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U.N. Warns of Sri Lankan War Crimes

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Posted on Mar 13, 2009
Sri Lanka Injuries
wn.com

The civil war in Sri Lanka has seen government forces indiscriminately shell the north and Tamil Tiger rebels fire on people trying to flee.

After an estimated 10,000 civilian deaths or injuries in only two months, the U.N. has called on the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tiger rebels to immediately suspend fighting, suggesting that actions by both parties may constitute violations of international human rights law.

BBC:

Actions by Sri Lanka’s government and the Tamil Tiger rebels may amount to war crimes, the United Nations says.

“Certain actions being undertaken by the Sri Lankan military and by the LTTE [Tigers] may constitute violations of international human rights and humanitarian law,” said [U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay].

She accused government forces of repeatedly shelling safe zones set up to protect civilians.

Tamil Tigers, she said, had reportedly held civilians as human shields and fired on those who tried to flee.

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By Ruwan, May 23, 2009 at 8:19 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

This article by BBC is very misleading. Sri Lankan government forces were eliminating LTTE which is a terrorist organization which killed Sinhala, Muslim and also Tamil civilians over 30 years. At the last moment they were rescuing Tamil civilians held hostage by LTTE to get support from organization like EU and UN. Its true that SL Forces attacked the terrorist and there are some civilian casualties. But, they kept civilian casualties minimum and prevented potential disasters by eliminating LTTE terrorism.

If I can I would ask two questions from UN.

1. If UN were to face LTTE who hold civilians as a shield and attack, will UN let LTTE go or free the civilians from LTTE clutches. Or, drop a nuclear bomb like they did to Japan.

2. Now UN hopes to investigate war crimes against LTTE too. Is it a joke? LTTE was recruiting child soldiers, killing civilians using suicide bombs, etc, etc. UN did nothing. And after LTTE is defeated and all the leaders dead, who are is UN accusing?

But anyway, UN is not UK, US and Norway. So, I hope UN will make a wise decision and it will apply to all the countries without any different.

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