Reacting to news published in the British Telegraph that the The United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillai has ‘called for an international war crimes investigation into alleged alleged human rights abuses in the final stages of the hostilities in 2009′, External Affairs Minister Neomal Perera said, “It is likely to change into a move seeking the establishment of a domestic mechanism to investigate allegations of war crimes as against an independent international probe, the reason being that the UN is not a political playground for some countries.’

Telegraph reported, a call has been made for an international investigation by UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillai in a 20-page submission to the United Nations.

It comes comes less than three weeks before a UN meeting in Geneva the newspaper reported referring to the UNHRC sessions in March.

Dr . Pra t h i b h a Mahanamahewa

A UN advisory report had earlier estimated 40,000 were killed in the final months of the war. “New evidence – including witness testimony, video and photographic material – continues to emerge on what took place in the final stages of the armed conflict. Human remains also continue to be discovered, for instance in Matale in November 2012 and Mannar in December 2013,’ Ms. Pillai apparently states in her report according to the Telegraph.

“We believe that an independent UN member countries have accepted recommendations in the report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission which has a mechanism for a domestic inquiry’, Mr Neomal Perera said in reaction. “How can you bring resolutions based on unfounded statistics without evidence that support such claims which assert that 40 000 civilians were killed during the final months of the war, or based on information provided by Tamil Diaspora elements that supported the LTTE,” he asked.

“There was no democracy in the country’s Northern Province during the war. That was because there was no civil administration. Where there is no civil administration there is war. When there is war people get killed. The government has ended terrorism and established civil administration in these provinces paving the way for democracy,” he said.

Human Rights lawyer and the Dean of Law at the Kothalawala Defense University, Dr Prathibha Mahanamahewa said, the UK which has been pushing for an international resolution against Sri Lanka under pressure from the Tamil Diaspora, has been compelled to rethink their action ‘because of a 250-page dossier accusing the UK of committing war crimes in Iraq, that has gone before the International Criminal Court.’