UN’s Sri Lankan war crimes report “singularly counterproductive”: Foreign Minister
07 May 2011, 10:19 AM
Maldives Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem has told journalists in Colombo that the UN report into human rights abuses in the closing days of the country’s civil war is “singularly counterproductive.”
The report was leaked to the Sri Lankan media several weeks ago and contains allegations that the army shelled hospitals, UN facilities and aid workers with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the final days of the civil war between the army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The report also accuses the Sri Lankan government of intimidating and in some cases abducting journalists “in white vans”. The LTTE was criticised for allegedly using civilians as human shields.
A former UN spokesperson based in Sri Lanka told media after the report was leaked that it “damns the government of Sri Lanka’s so-called war on terror, which incidentally killed many thousands of civilians. The Tamil Tigers were equally rotten in their disdain for life.”
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