bbc news sri lanka civil war navi pillay

For her suggestion of monitors and a subsequent warning from Geneva as tensions rose in the battle theatres of the north that human rights violators in Sri Lanka, even those in senior government posts could be charged in international criminal courts, Arbour was lambasted by Sri Lanka’s “patriotic armies” and senior officials of the ruling administration for interfering in the country’s internal affairs. She was flatly refused access into LTTE controlled areas, with the Government saying it could not guarantee her safety.

Arbour conceded that neither mission could be set up without the express invitation and facilitation of the Government of Sri Lanka. The end game, it was believed then, despite Government denials, would be hardest on non-combatants, a realisation that prompted the then High Commissioner to call for a UN monitoring mission to be set up in Sri Lanka, alongside an office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights that could “help” the situation on the ground. High Commissioner Arbour landed in Sri Lanka, as rights activists began to voice growing fears about the toll the heightened conflict was taking on civilians. The scars and controversy arising therefrom, would last much longer. The harsh reality of hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in the ever-shrinking Tiger-controlled spaces of the north meant that in reality, the final battle would take one year longer than he anticipated. When the military overran LTTE bases in Mannar in January 2008, the Army Commander announced that the war would be over in six months. Sarath Fonseka was turning its eyes on the LTTE’s major bases of the North, a battle that would last two years more and have lasting effects on the country’s post-conflict narrative.Īs security forces began the offensives to surround and contain the LTTE to its Wanni stronghold, concern was already rising about the plight of civilians caught in the fighting. Government forces had recently secured the strategic LTTE base in Toppigala, flushing the Tigers completely out of the Eastern Province with that major victory. Louise Arbour, the last UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Sri Lanka, arrived in the country in October 2007, just over a year into the Government’s ‘humanitarian operation’ to liberate the north and east from the Tamil Tigers. Add caption UNHRC session-March 2013-pic: UN

Bbc news sri lanka civil war navi pillay