Writing in The Independent, Scottish journalist Isabel Hilton has criticised the United Nations for allowing itself to be "bullied by a murderous government" and called for the organisation to punish those responsible for crimes in Sri Lanka.

Extracts have been reproduced below. See the full article here.

"Nothing can bring back the estimated 30,000 civilians who died in 2009 in the closing months of the war in Sri Lanka, but if the UN is to learn from its shocking failure to protect those civilians it must do more than mouth regrets and resolutions."

"Hypocrisy is never attractive. Hypocrisy with lethal consequences is abject moral failure."

"They failed to publicise the details of the crimes and the government’s responsibility for them and to galvanise international opinion. They stood by as hospitals and refugee camps were shelled, civilians massacred and humanitarian aid withheld. They failed to fulfil the most basic requirements of their mandate."

"If the words “never again” are to be more than an inscription on the gravestones of new victims, the UN must pursue this shameful episode to its roots. Its failures have enabled a triumphalist narrative  that the government of Sri Lanka continues to broadcast. Other regimes will draw satisfaction from the “success” of these scorched-earth tactics."

"In 1999, the then Secretary General Kofi Annan resolved to ensure the UN never again failed to protect a civilian population, as it had in Rwanda. But failure was replayed in Darfur and Sri Lanka. The first step to restoring the UN’s credibility is to be implacable in holding the government of Sri Lanka to account. "

"It must use it to oblige the government of Sri Lanka to acknowledge its crimes and to punish those responsible. It must pursue justice and redress for the victims. And from the top to the bottom of the organisation, the commitment to protection, whatever the circumstances, must be paramount. Without that, it risks once again acting as window dressing to horror."