Inquiry urged into Sri Lankan rights violations

HUMAN RIGHTS violations committed during the Sri Lanka conflict must be subject to an independent, international investigation, former UN assistant secretary general Denis Halliday said last night.

“Sri Lanka has been forgotten, despite the staggering violations of human rights, the war crimes and the crimes against humanity that took place there,” he said. “All this has been ignored.”

Mr Halliday was speaking following the second of two public meetings in Dublin at which he presented new evidence of alleged war crimes and human rights abuses in the south Asian state.

Video footage showing extra-judicial killings, the desecration of corpses and the bombing of hospitals was screened at last night’s event at Trinity College. Also in attendance was Mary Lawlor, director of human rights group Front Line.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/1008/1224280634965.html