Sri Lanka’s foreign minister, GL Peiris, stressed today that his government has no obligation to answer for the reported deaths of thousands of Tamil civilians at the end of the 2009 conflict.
Speaking on the side-lines of the United Nations General Assembly, Peris, defended the Sri Lankan government’s efforts of investigating the alleged massacres, assuring that a commission of inquiry appointed by Sri Lanka’s president in August to investigate disappearances would report back after six months.
Contending that the UN human rights council was discriminating unfairly against Sri Lanka, he said,
“In no other post-conflict situation has there been the intensity of pressure in such a short time."
Peiris’ remarks come after the UN High Commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, urged the international community to establish its own enquiry if the Sri Lankan government failed to carry out a credible investigation into war crimes at the end of the 2009 conflict.