Colombo: A US-initiated draft resolution on Sri Lanka's alleged human rights violations has called for a domestic judicial mechanism that includes foreign judges to probe the war crimes during the conflict with the LTTE, a development that may help it avoid an international inquiry.
The draft resolution, cosponsored by Sri Lanka, the US, the UK, Macedonia and Montenegro was submitted to the UNHRC in Geneva with several amendments to the original text proposed earlier, officials said. The resolution comes a week after the publication of a long-awaited UN report that called for establishing a hybrid court to probe the atrocities, specially during the last stages of the three-decade conflict.
Titled `Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka', the draft resolution is still open for last minute amendments before it is taken up for a vote. Sri Lanka was trying to water-down the tone of the resolution after last weeks UNHRC report.
Lanka rules out involvement of foreign judges
Sri Lanka's domestic mechanism to probe the alleged rights abuses cannot have foreign judges due to constitutional impediments, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in Colombo. Wickremesinghe said his government could only act within the framework of the Sri Lankan Constitution, which does not allow foreign judges to operate in the country. He, however, said that international expertise would be welcomed but the country's judiciary would have to approve the extent of their involvement.
The Sri Lankan Premier's assertions came against the backdrop of UN high commissioner for human rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein call for a hybrid special court, integrating international judges, prosecutors, lawyers and investigators to probe the alleged rights abuses during the civil war that ended in 2009.
Rights groups claim that the Sri Lankan military killed 40,000 civilians in the final months of the three decade-long brutal ethnic conflict in the island nation.
