UN appoints three-member panel on Lanka civil war

Its job is to advise Ban on alleged violations of international rights and humanitarian laws during the war’s final stages. The panel aims to get cooperation from Sri Lankan officials and to complete its advisory work within four months.

The other two members are Yasmin Sooka,a South African former member of the commission that investigated apartheid atrocities,and

Steven Ratner,an American lawyer and author of a book on the struggle among nations to hold people accountable for human rights abuses.

Specifically,Ban said he is looking to the panel for an assessment of how well Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa has followed up on the commitment he made to human rights accountability when Ban visited in May 2009.

A statement from the secretary-general said he “remains convinced that accountability is an essential foundation for durable peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka.”

Human rights groups say the government is illegally detaining the war refugees who comprise the country’s minority Tamil population. Aid groups say the camps are prone to disease,and they fear that monsoon rains expected in November-December will create a public health crisis.

“We think the expert panel will be valuable only if it will be able to produce a roadmap for an international investigation,and the SG acts on that,” said Peggy Hicks,global advocacy director for Human Rights Watch in New York. “The membership looks good,but experience to date shows the Sri Lanka government is not going to investigate wartime abuses.”

Sri Lanka has rejected either an international or joint investigation,saying civil war is a domestic issue.

Last week,UN Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe visited areas close to where the last battles were waged and talked to the people who fled their homes during the fighting and are now being resettled.

The villagers were some of the 300,000 held in camps in the country’s north for months following the government’s defeat of Tamil Tigers rebels last year and the end of 25 years of civil war.

The government says the majority have been released and resettled in their villages,but U.N. officials estimate some 60,000 to 70,000 remain.

Pascoe called on Rajapaksa to integrate the remainder of those displaced by the civil war with the Tamil Tiger rebels,who fought for a separate homeland while claiming decades of discrimination by the Sinhalese majority.

Government troops routed the Tamil rebels in May 2009,ending their 25-year fight for independence. The U.N. says between 80,000 and 100,000 people were killed during the war. According to UN documents,more than 7,000 civilians died in the last five months of the conflict.