Colombo, Jan 15 (PTI) A US-based leading human rights organisation has urged Sri Lanka to prosecute perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the island nation's decades-long civil war.
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday also said that a recent UN report about sexual violence, primarily by security forces, against Tamil civilians during the civil war was another step forward in the struggle for accountability for crimes under international law.
The UN report, titled 'We lost everything – even hope for justice', follows a decade of monitoring and reporting by the UN Human Rights Office, and extensive consultations with survivors, local experts on gender-based violence, civil society and others.
The report, issued on Tuesday, found that sexual violence was “part of a deliberate, widespread, and systemic pattern of violations” by state security forces, and “may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
“While the appalling rape and murder of Tamil women by Sri Lankan soldiers at the war's end has long been known, the UN report shows that systematic sexual abuse was ignored, concealed, and even justified by Sri Lankan governments unwilling to punish those responsible,” Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said.
"Sri Lanka's international partners need to step up their efforts to promote accountability for war crimes in Sri Lanka," Ganguly added.
The HRW says that successive Sri Lankan governments have failed to credibly investigate and prosecute international crimes related to the 26-year civil war between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The current government, which came to office in 2024 promising justice, has made no apparent progress, while victims and survivors continue to suffer long-term harm, the HRW said.
There are significant legal and institutional obstacles to justice, including a 20-year statute of limitations in sexual violence cases and the fact that Sri Lankan law does not recognise the rape of men.
Some survivors who attempted to register complaints described humiliating or intimidating experiences with the police and court authorities. “Survivors cannot be expected to seek protection from the very entity they fear,” one respondent told the UN.
“Sri Lanka is obligated under international law to prosecute perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and until it does, foreign governments need to do more to press for accountability,” Ganguly said.
“That means providing support for legal processes, better vetting of military personnel for peacekeeping missions, and concerted efforts to bring criminal cases abroad under universal jurisdiction.”
The LTTE had run a military campaign for a separate Tamil homeland in the northern and eastern provinces of the island nation for nearly 30 years before its collapse in 2009 after the Sri Lankan Army killed its supreme leader V Prabhakaran.
The UN report has asked the Lankan government to take immediate and concrete steps to publicly acknowledge past sexual violence committed by State forces and others, and to issue a formal apology.
The government should also implement survivor-centred reforms across the security sector, judiciary and the legal framework, establish an independent prosecution office, and ensure access to psychological and social support, the UN report added.