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 Sri Lanka has been in world focus with its 33-year bloody conflict coming to an end but not without a lot of bloodshed and human rights violations. The international community has questioned Sri Lankan government’s post-conflict commitment to human rights as well as during the operations against Tamil militants.
Although the government had formed a human rights commission and made some progress with regard to treating the internally displaced Tamil population with respect, observers say it was a ploy for the presidential elections.
In this long conflict, both sides have been accused of gross violation of human rights with excessive use against civilians caught between the two sides.
The government and LTTE supporters have also accused each other of human rights violations with the government claiming that the militants indulged in forced recruitment of child soldiers and used women and children as human shields during the military operation against them.
The government has also been accused of mistreating the Tamil civilian population with nearly 300,000 having been displaced by the conflict. Earlier, in February 2009, the international concern over the humanitarian situation of thousands of civilians trapped in the battle zone prompted calls for a temporary ceasefire. This was rejected by the government.
It rejected any international probes within its territory. The Sri Lankan President told the U.N. Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon that the government would look into the abuse claims itself.
But keeping in view the past Sri Lankan state-sponsored probe into human rights violations which was disbanded in June 2009 with its mandate unfulfilled and many cases left uninvestigated, the international community and public now has less faith in the government.
Facts about casualties are murky and many aspects of the offensive have been called into question. International organizations have repeatedly asked for an independent probe to look into atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE.
In response to concerns following the defeat of the LTTE, the U.N. Human Rights Council held a special session on Sri Lanka in May 2009. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillai, called for an international investigation into war crimes by the government and the LTTE.
Unfortunately in May 2009, the Human Rights Council passed a resolution, approved by 29 countries, clearing it of charges of human rights violations. A Swiss-E.U. draft resolution calling for an investigation into possible war crimes was dropped.
The win for the Sri Lankan government is attributed to its massive support from countries like Cuba, India, South Africa, China and Pakistan.
The scenario is sad and it also shows that public resentment in Sri Lanka cannot be mitigated so easily as there are very few chances of fair investigations into human rights violations in the country. Sri Lanka is not a member of the International Criminal Court; it can be investigated by it for crimes only through a vote in the UN Security Council. In 2008, Sri Lanka lost its bid for a second term on the Human Rights Council after being accused of failing to prevent human rights abuses during the conflict with the LTTE.
The role of prosecution mechanism is very important for ensuring enforcement of law and justice obtaining in case of crimes and gross human rights violations. But, for that, prosecution must be institutionally independent, particularly from political and judicial influence which is not the case with regard to Sri Lanka like most countries of Asia. 
The writer is a defense analyst based in Peshawar and writs extensively on regional security.
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