GENEVA – Responding to decades-long pressure for accountability in the Sri Lankan civil war, the United Nations will form a team of investigators to collect evidence of atrocities and abuses, amid growing concern about the government’s setback in human rights.
The Human Rights Council in Geneva voted decisively to support a resolution led by Britain and Canada that provides funding for a team to collect and analyze evidence of abuse and also to “develop possible strategies” to prosecute criminals.
The resolution is the latest effort to demand responsibility for the atrocities committed by a guerrilla group, the Tamil Tigers, and by security forces during the 30-year civil war. In January, a report released by UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet called for “international action to ensure justice for international crimes” committed in the country.
Sri Lanka remains deeply marked by the brutal civil war that its largely Sinhalese government waged for 30 years against the cruel guerrillas of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who wanted to create a separate state in the north of the island, a majority of Tamil.
Tuesday’s vote was a diplomatic setback for Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
His government has been lobbying intensively with foreign governments in recent months to try to block support for the initiative. He also resorted to severe intimidation by human rights groups at home and even surveillance by diplomats who tried to get involved with them.
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena condemned the resolution as an effort by Western countries “to dominate the global south”.
The previous Sri Lankan government had pledged to investigate atrocities and create a court with international support to prosecute the perpetrators. It was part of a movement towards accountability and reconciliation with the aim of defusing ethnic tensions and reducing the risk of further violence.
But that process was quickly halted after the 2019 election of Rajapaksa, who had been defense minister in the bloody final stages of the civil war, when the UN estimated that thousands of civilians died in indiscriminate bombings by the military.
The Human Rights Council resolution passed on Tuesday also drew attention to a deterioration in the past year in Sri Lanka, citing harassment and intimidation of human rights groups, increased militarization of the government, weakened judiciary independence, restrictions on media and reports of torture by security forces.
“The world has sent a message to Sri Lankan officials that they cannot escape accountability for international crimes,” said John Fisher, director of Human Rights Watch in Geneva, “and they should now step back from the escalation of ongoing abuses. “
The vote of the 47 members of the council to determine the inquiry was 22 to 11, with 14 abstentions.
The initiative follows, albeit on a more modest scale, the earlier ones that are gathering evidence of crimes against humanity in Syria and Myanmar that could support the process by an international court or based on universal jurisdiction.