These are comments by Amnesty International’s Sri Lanka researcher, Yolanda Foster, in an interview to Channel 4 News Saturday.

“[The UN panel’s] report is a call for action because it highlights the scale and gravity of what happened in the final months of the war in Sri Lanka.

“Amnesty believes an international independent investigation should be set up without further delay.

“The panel’s report is very strong and it itself recommended an international investigation.

“[Amnesty] is hoping that Ban Ki-Moon will show leadership and deliver on his promises of accountability and set up a commission of inquiry to look into these very serious allegations.

“He has to remember there are thousands of survivors and families who are desperate for truth and justice in Sri Lanka, and they’re waiting and watching to see what the Secretary General will do in response to this very harrowing report.

“We think it is increasingly difficult for the government of Sri Lanka to push back against these kinds of findings. We are talking about a situation in which thousands of civilians were killed, where there was systematic targeting of hospitals.

“Now there’s emerging evidence of war crimes by both sides of the conflict and it is very hard for the government with this mounting information to continue to pretend they had a ‘zero civilian casualty’ policy.”

See Channel 4's interview here: