Saturday, 12th April 2014
(COLOMBO, Xinhua)
The Sri Lankan Government on Saturday said it has no faith in an international investigation into the alleged human rights abuses said to have occurred during the war in the country.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa's special envoy on human rights and Government Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said that Sri Lanka feels an international investigation will lack credibility and will not be independent.
Samarasinghe was speaking to reporters after meeting some of the island's leading Buddhist monks and briefing them on the latest developments in the country.
The UN Human Rights Council in Geneva last month passed a resolution, calling for an international investigation in Sri Lanka over allegations that human rights abuses were committed during the war between Tamil Tiger rebels and the army.
Human Rights Council members also called on Sri Lanka to reduce the number of troops in the former war zones in the north in order to restore normalcy, five years after the war ended.
However, Samarasinghe said the decision to maintain troops on the ground in the North was justified following a clash between three former rebels and the army in the northern Vavuniya town.
A most wanted rebel member identified as Gobi and two others were killed following a confrontation with the army on Thursday.
The army said that an exchange of gun-fire had taken place when soldiers confronted Gobi and two other former rebels who were armed. All three were eventually killed. Samarasinghe said that even the UN Human Rights Council had been told there was a need to maintain troops in the North as there were reports the rebels was attempting to regroup, and the clash involving Gobi has now proven the government stand was correct.
Editor: xuxin
See more at : http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-04/12/c_133257635.htm
