UN chief would welcome Sri Lanka probe
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press
Apr 26, 2011 9:18 PM CDT

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday he would welcome a mandate from the U.N. Human Rights Council, Security Council or General Assembly to launch an international investigation into allegations of possible war crimes during the final stages of Sri Lanka's civil war two years ago.

He said he would also welcome a request from the Sri Lankan government for an international probe, which is highly unlikely.

The Sri Lankan government has denounced a U.N. panel's report calling on Ban to immediately establish "an independent international mechanism" to investigate what it called credible allegations that both the government and Tamil Tiger rebels committed serious violations in the months before the decades-long war ended in May 2009. It said some violations could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity,

In a statement accompanying Monday's public release of the report, the U.N. said Ban has been advised that he needs government consent or a decision from member states in an international forum, which he didn't specify.

Human Rights Watch said Ban's statement "should not place an unnecessary obstacle to establishing a justice mechanism."

But the secretary-general told reporters after briefing the Security Council on Tuesday that "it is a fact that if I want to establish any independent international commission of inquiry, I will need to have a clear mandate from an intergovernmental body or the consent of the Sri Lankan government."

"I would welcome to have that kind of mandate from either the Sri Lankan government or an intergovernmental body so that I would be able to establish such a commission of inquiry," he said.

Ban said he expects the 192 U.N. member states to carefully read the panel's recommendations.

The panel, which gathered evidence for 10 months, said tens of thousands of people died in just the last five months of the war that ended in May 2009. "Most civilian casualties in the final phases of the war were caused by government shelling," it said.

The panel asked the Geneva-based Human Rights Council to reconsider a resolution that was defeated just days after the end of the war that called for an investigation of abuse allegations.

Ban sent the report to the Sri Lankan government on April 12 hoping for a response to include with the public release but never received one. When the report was leaked to The Island newspaper in Sri Lanka on April 17, the government issued a statement calling it "fundamentally flawed and patently biased" and "presented without any verification."

Ban said he is still hoping for "a constructive response that points the way towards national reconciliation and peace."