GENEVA — A U.S. initiative calling for the Sri Lankan government to account for the loss of civilian life at the end of its civil war three years ago has won support from a clear majority of the United Nations Human Rights Council in the face of an exhaustive government campaign to block it.
The 47 members of the council, based in Geneva, voted 24-15, with eight abstentions, in favor of a resolution urging Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations of the commission it had appointed to investigate events at the end of its civil war in 2009 and to start a credible process of accounting for the heavy loss of life that occurred.
A U.N. panel reported last year that as many as 40,000 people might have died in the closing stages of the 26-year war against Tamil Tiger separatists, many as a result of government shelling of areas crowded with civilians. The panel said it had found credible evidence that both sides in the conflict committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The resolution will keep the issue on the council’s agenda by requiring the U.N. high commissioner for human rights to report back in one year on the action taken to follow up on these recommendations.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement that the international community had “sent a strong signal that Sri Lanka will only achieve lasting peace through real reconciliation and accountability.”
Front Section, Pages 10 on 03/23/2012