UN to probe Sri Lanka civil war
Panel will look into allegations of war crimes during conflict with Tamil Tigers.
A United Nations panel of experts is set to investigate allegations of human rights abuses during the final phases of Sri Lanka’s civil war between the country’s military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), an armed separatist group.
The LTTE, which was defeated by the Sri Lankan army last year, had launched a campaign more than 30 years ago seeking to create Tamil Ealam, an independent state in the north and east of the country for the minority Tamil ethnic group.
The three-person panel will look into war crimes on both sides of the conflict in which hundreds of thousands of civilians were caught in the crossfire as the military closed in on LTTE fighters.
Al Jazeera’s Minelle Fernandez reports from Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital.