The Sri Lankan government plans to launch an international campaign against a UN report on alleged war crimes committed during the final phase of a military operation against Tamil rebels two years ago, a local newspaper reported Sunday.
The Sri Lankan government has said it would on Thursday officially react to the UN report, which was handed over to the government last week. However, it was already preparing a major campaign against the report.
Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa told the Sunday Times newspaper in Colombo that the government would send teams to India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia and other non-aligned countries to explain why Sri Lanka had to use military force to crush the rebels.
Rajapaksa was quoted as saying the government would prepare an outline to justify military action, the civilian casualties caused by the rebels, the benefits achieved by the elimination of terrorism and the humanitarian steps taken to protect civilians during the offensive.
The UN report was handed over by a three-member panel which was appointed to advise UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the issue of accountability during the final stages of the military operations.
The UN has said that more than 7,500 civilians were killed in the final phase of the military offensive in the northern part of the country before the rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leadership was wiped out in May 2009, bringing an end to the 26-year-old conflict.
In a related development, President Rajapaksa has advised his party members to organise a mass May Day rally to show that people in the country back the government, despite allegations by the UN.
Sri Lanka has repeatedly denied allegations of human rights abuses, but has appointed its own commission to investigate events during the final eight years of the conflict.
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