UN asks Lanka to allow foreign judges in war crimes probe

The UN's human rights body today unanimously recommended a credible probe involving foreign judges and prosecutors into the alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka in the brutal war against the LTTE, a resolution on which was surprisingly co-sponsored by Colombo.
The 47-member United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) at its ongoing 30th session here approved by consensus a crucial resolution led by the US and the UK, and backed by Sri Lanka itself, in a move hailed by international advocacy groups.
According to a UNHRC spokesperson, there was no voting and there were no last-minute revisions in the text of the draft resolution titled "Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka".

The resolution calls for establishment of a Sri Lankan Judicial Mechanism with a Special Counsel to investigate allegations of violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law during the final phase of the nearly three decade-long brutal ethnic conflict that ended in military defeat of the LTTE in 2009.
Rights groups claim that the military killed 40,000 civilians in the final months.
The proposed mechanism will include Special Counsel's office, of Commonwealth and other foreign judges, defence lawyers, and authorised prosecutors and investigators.
Besides asking Sri Lanka to form a credible judicial system for the probe, the resolution - based on a landmark report issued by the UN last month - also calls on Sri Lanka to allow for punishment of "those most responsible for the full range of crimes".

There was no immediate reaction from Colombo on how the Sri Lankan government received the news on the resolution in view of the fact that Sri Lankan laws do not allow operation of foreign judges and prosecutors on its soil.