UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – A panel of experts set up to advise U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon on possible war crimes at the end of Sri Lanka’s war against Tamil Tiger rebels delivered its report to him on Tuesday, the United Nations said.
The report by the panel, whose appointment was strongly criticized by the Colombo government, was not immediately made public. U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said it was first being given to Sri Lanka and would be published fairly soon.
Government forces defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in May 2009 after a quarter-century conflict that killed thousands of people. The end of the war displaced large numbers of people in the north of the island state.
Sri Lanka’s government denies any war crimes were committed but human rights groups say both the government and the Tigers, who were seeking to set up a separate Tamil state, were guilty of rights violations.
The three-member U.N. panel was set up soon after Ban visited Sri Lanka shortly after the end of the conflict. Colombo blasted it as “an unwarranted and unnecessary interference with a sovereign nation.”
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