 Did the Sri Lankan army commit human rights violations in its bid to drive out the LTTE and regain control of sovereign territory? After mounting pressure and criticism from the international community, Sri Lanka has decided to launch an inquiry into the alleged human rights violations in the war against LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). The Sri Lankan army took back the northern part of the island earlier this year- a part of the country that had become a de facto LTTE state and government did not seem to have its writ or control here.
Some of the most brutal battles between the Sri Lankan army and the LTTE took place in March and April 2009 when the army ran over many LTTE strongholds. This is the phase of the war that has been criticised, mostly by the international community and the Tamil Diaspora, for alleged human right violations by the Sri Lankan army against the Tamil population that left behind after the insurgents were pushed out of their occupied areas or were eliminated during the last phase.
According to reports submitted to US Congress, the major allegations against the Sri Lankan army include abduction of Tamil civilians, killing innocent Tamil populations and aerial bombing in no-war zones. However, the US State Department says the report does not constitute official allegations of war crimes and urges a full investigation.
Another report was published by the European Union according to which unlawful killings are a major problem in Sri Lanka, perpetrated by soldiers, police, paramilitary groups and others. The EU has given until 6th November 2009 to the Sri Lankan government to allow an inquiry or to itself conduct an inquiry about the alleged human rights violations, failing which, it will discontinue its $100 million trade concession to Sri Lanka.
After such criticism, the Sri Lankan government has made a commitment to conduct a high level inquiry into the allegations by the Western media and international organisations. Critics in the country and abroad are skeptical about the possible findings of any inquiry conducted by the government of Sri Lanka as the country's armed forces are involved in human right violations. It is feared that the government will whitewash all findings against army personnel involved in atrocities against Tamil civilians in the last phase of the war against the LTTE. The Sri Lankan government denies it was responsible for the death of even one of the 7,000 civilians the UN estimates were killed in the first four months of this year.
Only time will tell how many human right violations were committed by each party in this thirty year war if an independent, impartial and objective inquiry is ever conducted against both sides but there are also some questions about the merits of such demands.
All told, Sri Lanka seems to be the winner in this battle of allegations and counter-allegations: on October 27, the UN Human Rights council praised its victory over the Tamil Tigers and refused calls to investigate allegations of war crimes by both sides in the final chapter of the bloody conflict. Sri Lanka's human rights minister, Mahinda Samarasinghe, said: "This is a strong endorsement of our president's efforts to rout terrorism and the successful handling of the world's biggest hostage crisis.
"This is a clear message that the international community is behind Sri Lanka."
Some Questions
Although it is clear from media reports that the demand for inquiry has been accepted by the Sri Lankan government and it has guaranteed to fulfill its obligations, it is legitimate to ask why the champions of human rights started their criticism against the counter insurgency efforts of a country that was caught in a serious existential threat for the past three decades, when the LTTE was committing atrocities against the civilian population of Sri Lanka?
It is a known fact that the LTTE insurgency was supported by international players in the region. Why was then, no voice raised about this? Will human rights champions call for an inquiry into who was helping the LTTE which had kept the entire country in terror for three decades?
Most importantly, what about future counter-insurgency operations? Will there be any standard operating procedure for armies around the world to conduct such operations? If not, there will always be demands for international impartial inquires. This will continue to happen till the time there is a global consensus over what constitutes insurgency or terrorism and what is a freedom struggle. 
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