Clinton welcomes UN resolution on Sri Lanka

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday welcomed a UN resolution urging Sri Lanka to ‘credibly investigate’ allegations of war crimes during its battle against Tamil Tiger separatists in 2009. Thursday’s Human Rights Council resolution in Geneva ‘encourages the government of Sri Lanka to continue on the path toward reconciliation following 27 years of civil war,’ the chief US diplomat said in a statement. ‘The United States, together with the international community, sent a strong signal that Sri Lanka will only achieve lasting peace through real reconciliation and accountability,’ Clinton said. ‘And the international community stands ready to help,’ she said. Washington looks to the Sri Lankan government to ‘implement the constructive recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) and take the necessary measures to address accountability,’ she said. ‘We are committed to working with the Sri Lankan government to help realize this goal, and I look forward to discussing future actions with Foreign Minister (Gamini Lakshman) Peiris soon,’ Clinton said. In tabling the resolution in Geneva, Washington said Colombo had been given three years to hold its own investigations into allegations of serious violations, but ‘given the lack of action... it is appropriate’ that the 47-member state council pushed it to do so. ‘An enduring peace will be unsustainable without meaningful steps to foster national reconciliation and accountability,’ said US envoy Eileen Donahoe. ‘It is a resolution that encourages Sri Lanka to ... make concerted efforts at achieving the kind of meaningful accountability upon which lasting reconciliation efforts can be built.’ Rights groups say up to 40,000 civilians died in the final months of Colombo’s military campaign to crush the Tamil Tigers, who waged a bloody decades-long campaign for a separate homeland for minority Tamils. The UN estimates some 100,000 people died during Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict between 1972 and 2009. Sri Lankan authorities have rejected Thursday’s resolution, saying the country must be given time to complete its own domestic investigations without interference from foreign powers.