A US-led resolution calling for an international probe into allegations that 40,000 civilians were killed at the end of Sri Lanka's separatist war has been filed with the UN's top rights body. In a draft resolution posted on the Human Rights Council's website on Tuesday, the United States endorses UN human rights chief Navi Pillay's call for an external investigation into alleged war crimes in the final stages of Sri Lanka's Tamil civil war in May 2009.
The draft welcomed Pillay's recommendation following her visit to Sri Lanka in August that there should be an "independent and credible investigation in the absence of a credible national process with tangible results". International rights groups as well as UN experts have said there are "credible allegations" that up to 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed after government forces ordered them into a no-fire zone. The resolution noted progress in de-mining, reconstruction and re-settling war victims and effectively gave Sri Lanka another year to show results on accountability.