Citizen journalism image provided by Aleppo Media Center AMC which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows smoke rises from Aleppo International Airport, Syria, Tuesday Feb. 12, 2013. Rebels captured a military air base in northern Syria on Tuesday, handing opposition fighters their second strategic victory in their nearly two-year battle against President Bashar Assad in as many days, activists said. (AP Photo/Aleppo Media Center AMC)
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Citizen journalism image provided by Aleppo Media Center AMC which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows smoke rises from Aleppo International Airport, Syria, Tuesday Feb. 12, 2013. Rebels captured a military air base in northern Syria on Tuesday, handing opposition fighters their second strategic victory in their nearly two-year battle against President Bashar Assad in as many days, activists said. (AP Photo/Aleppo Media Center AMC)
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This citizen journalism image provided by The Syrian Revolution which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows smoke rising from heavy shelling in the Hajar Aswad neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013. (AP Photo/The Syrian Revolution)
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This citizen journalism image taken on Friday, Jan. 25, 2013 and provided by Aleppo Media Center AMC which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows smoke rising from heavy shelling in Aleppo, Syria, Tuesday Feb. 12, 2013. Rebels captured a military air base in northern Syria on Tuesday, handing opposition fighters their second strategic victory in their nearly two-year battle against President Bashar Assad in as many days, activists said. (AP Photo/Aleppo Media Center AMC)
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This image taken from video obtained from Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrian rebels at Jarrah airfield in Aleppo province, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013. Rebels captured the military air base in northern Syria on Tuesday, their second major strategic victory in as many days, activists said. (AP Photo/Ugarit News via AP video)
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This image taken from video obtained from Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrian rebels at Jarrah airfield in Aleppo province, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013. Rebels captured a military air base in northern Syria on Tuesday, their second major strategic victory in as many days, activists said.(AP Photo/Ugarit News via AP video)
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This image taken from video obtained from Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a Syrian fighter jet in a hangar after rebels captured Jarrah airfield in Aleppo province, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013. Rebels captured a military air base in northern Syria on Tuesday, their second major strategic victory in as many days, activists said.(AP Photo/Ugarit News via AP video)
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Citizen journalism image provided by Aleppo Media Center AMC which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrian rebels stand in the rubble of damaged buildings due to government airstrikes, in the neighborhood of Karam Tarab near Aleppo International Airport, in Aleppo, Syria, Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013. Syrian rebels fought pitched battles Wednesday against regime forces at a military base that protects a major airport in the country's north in fighting that has left more than 40 government troops dead, opposition activists said. (AP Photo/Aleppo Media Center AMC)
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The car of the North Korean ambassador to China emerges from the North Korean embassy in Beijing, Tuesday Feb. 12, 2013, hours after North Korea conducted its third nuclear test. Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi summoned North Korea's ambassador and delivered a "stern representation" and demanded that North Korea "swiftly return to the correct channel of dialogue and negotiation," following the test Tuesday. (AP Photo)
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South Korean protesters burn an effigy of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during an anti-North Korea rally denouncing the North's nuclear test in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013. A day after North Korea defied U.N. warnings with a nuclear test, Pyongyang’s neighbors turned Wednesday to the business of bolstering their military preparations and sending out scientists to determine whether the detonation was as successful as the North claimed. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
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A man looks through the wire fence covered with ribbons carrying messages of people's wish for the reunification of the two Koreas at the Imjingak Pavilion near the border village of Panmunjom, which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013. Defying U.N. warnings, North Korea on Tuesday conducted its third nuclear test in the remote, snowy northeast, taking a crucial step toward its goal of building a bomb small enough to be fitted on a missile capable of striking the United States. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
UN faults Sri Lanka probe of alleged war abuses
GENEVA (AP) — The
United Nations' top
human rights official on Wednesday faulted Sri Lanka for failing to investigate reports of widespread killings and other atrocities toward the end of its bloody quarter-century civil war.
In her report to the 47-nation U.N. Human Rights Council, High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay also said opposition leaders are still being killed or abducted and the government has made no arrests or prosecutions in cases of disappearances.
In May 2009, the government — dominated by the ethnic Sinhalese majority — defeated Tamil Tiger rebels who were demanding an independent Tamil nation after decades of perceived discrimination.
The report questioned the government's commitment to follow through on the recommendations of its own war commission report and urges Sri Lankan authorities to permit international experts to probe allegations of serious human rights violations.
"Unfortunately, however, the government has made commitments to only some of the commission's recommendations, and has not adequately engaged civil society to support this process," the report said. "The steps taken by the government to investigate allegations of serious violations of human rights further have also been inconclusive, and lack the independence and impartiality required to inspire confidence."
Sri Lanka's government disputed many of the findings. In a formal response that was released by Pillay's office, Sri Lanka said it has taken steps to investigate more than 50 instances of civilian killings and all reported cases of alleged disappearances from the end of the war.
The report comes as the Geneva-based council prepares to meet and take up the question of how well Sri Lanka has healed itself by uniting opposing factions after a war that the U.N. estimates killed 80,000 to 100,000 people.
The government is expected to face questions from the council in March on its progress in following up on that report, which also recommends investigating alleged human rights violations and giving autonomy to Tamils. The United States has said it will sponsor a resolution at the council for a second straight year on the report's implementation.
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa last week ruled out giving Tamils greater political autonomy, appearing to back away from his long-stalled promise to empower the ethnic minority as part of the country's reconciliation process.
Tags:
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