Sri Lanka's ethnic minority Tamil party rejected a government-appointed commission's report on the country's civil war because it lacked witness protections and failed to meet international investigative standards. The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission cleared government forces of deliberately targeting civilians, while saying isolated cases needed further investigation, and it accused the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels of routinely violating international humanitarian law.
Earlier last year, a UN-appointed panel said serious abuse allegations on both sides were credible and warranted an international inquiry. Sri Lanka's government appointed its own commission under pressure and with its report in hand, is expected to argue now that international inquiry is unnecessary.
The Tamil National Alliance, the main political party representing the ethnic minority, said the report by the LLRC "failed to fulfil the expectations of the Tamil community, while also falling dramatically short of international standards." The party also said the "attitude of the members towards witness protection reflected in the lack of concern when witnesses complained of threats, and in the failure to ensure confidentiality of in-camera statements after the LLRC concluded its work continues to severely undermine the safety of witnesses in tangible ways."
In response to the commission's report, the TNA said the "climate of hostility" in Sri Lanka towards those who accuse the government of war crimes "renders any accountability mechanism futile unless witnesses and victims are convinced that testimony implicating senior government functionaries in crimes will not be met with reprisals."
TNA also said the LLRC's "methodology assigned relatively lower importance to victims' perspectives" and also that it was "under-resourced and understaffed for the task of pursuing genuine accountability for violations during the last stages of the war."
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