Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the Sri Lankan government to co-operate with the ongoing United Nations investigation into mass atrocities and take steps to ensure accountability and justice in its World Report 2015, released last week.

“The UN investigation is the first real hope for justice for victims of atrocities on both sides during Sri Lanka’s long civil war,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at HRW. “Sri Lanka’s new government should cooperate with the UN investigation and act to end the previous hostility to justice.”

Noting that Sri Lanka had “immediately denounced the March UN rights council resolution” which had mandated the investigation, Human Rights Watch urged the newly elected president Maithripala Sirisena to ensure the government “take steps to ensure accountability and justice”.

The non-governmental organisation also stated that it had “documented extensive surveillance in ethnic Tamil majority areas in the north, detention of activists, and shutting down of workshops organized in the south to train journalists from the north.”

“The Rajapaksa government’s resettlement and reconstruction of affected communities in the post-conflict years has been seriously marred by oppression of the Tamil population,” said Adams.

Ultra-nationalist Buddhist organisations were responsible for spurring violence against Muslims, with the Sri Lankan government taking no action against the perpetrators, HRW further added.

Commenting on steps Sri Lanka's new government must take, Adams concluded by saying, “the new government has the responsibility to set Sri Lanka on the long road to ensure justice and rights for everyone, particularly minorities and critics of the government.”