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Sri Lanka rejects abuses claim
Melbourne Age - October 24, 2009
Matt Wade, Colombo – The Sri Lankan Government has angrily rejected a US State Department report containing allegations of human rights abuses in the final days of the country's civil war, saying the document would fan further conflict.
Colombo has vehemently rejected the report, saying its allegations against the Government were "unsubstantiated and devoid of corroborative evidence".
The statement by Sri Lanka's foreign ministry's said vested interests want to "fan the flames of secessionism" and undermine the Government's rehabilitation and reconciliation efforts.
However, New York-based watchdog Human Rights Watch said the report showed the need for an independent international investigation into allegations of human rights violations and war crimes in the closing stages of the civil war.
"The US State Department report should dispel any doubts that serious abuses were committed during the conflict's final months," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Given Sri Lanka's complete failure to investigate possible war crimes, the only hope for justice is an independent international investigation."
At the end of the bloody civil war, more than 250,000 mostly Tamil refugees were housed in guarded camps, mostly in Menik Farm near the northern town of Vavuniya.
However, the Government has been criticised for slow progress in resettling the displaced people and for restricting their movement for so long.
Before Thursday when 5700 refugees were allowed to leave the Menik Farm camp to be resettled, the Government said only about 15,000 people had been released from the camps and resettled in areas that have been under government control for many years.
According to accounts said by a senior US State Department official to be "credible and well substantiated", Government forces abducted and killed ethnic Tamil civilians, shelled and bombed no-fire zones, and killed senior rebel leaders with whom they had brokered a surrender.
Although the US stressed the allegations in the report did not constitute an accusation of war crimes, the Sri Lankan foreign affairs ministry in Colombo accused the US of smearing its reputation.
"The allegations against the government of Sri Lanka... appear to be unsubstantiated and devoid of corroborative evidence," it said.
"There is a track record of vested interests endeavouring to bring the Government of Sri Lanka into disrepute, through fabricated allegations and concocted stories."
The report includes allegations of violations by Tamil Tiger rebels, an organisation the US deems a terrorist group. It includes claims that the rebels conscripted children as young as 12, used non-combatants as human shields and gunned down civilians attempting to flee rebel-held areas.
Stephen Rapp, the US ambassador-at-large for war crimes, called on Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of abuse by both sides.
"We want accountability in this situation," he said. "We believe that [Sri Lankan authorities] can investigate this. We're trusting in that commitment."
The 70-page report to Congress was compiled from intelligence reports from the US embassy in Colombo, text messages and photographs from the war zone, foreign government sources and reports from human rights and media organisations. The report says it reaches no conclusions on the veracity of the charges, although Mr Rapp said the individual sources were "credible and reliable" and that allegations had been corroborated.
The abuses are alleged to have occurred in the final months of the 25-year conflict, when the Sri Lankan military cornered the remnants of the rebel force in a grim strip of beach in the north-east of the island. (With The Guardian)
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