US Asks Sri Lanka to Probe War Crime Charges

US Asks Sri Lanka to Probe War Crime Charges, The U.S. has asked the Sri Lankan government to fully investigate allegations of war crimes in the final months of his long war with Tamil rebels and bring those responsible to justice.

List of what was called credible allegations of abuses by both sides in the conflict, a State Department report issued Thursday said if the Sri Lankan government is truly interested in reconciliation after the war, to investigate alleged abuse.

The U.S. has urged the Sri Lankan authorities to open the northern region of international organizations, and conduct a thorough investigation of the charges, the department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters Thursday.

“We asked them to develop the kind of mechanisms to further investigate these complaints many down in this report, and then ultimately – as appropriate – to justice those who are guilty.”

“The Sri Lankan government has said they are determined to establish a process of reconciliation with the people of the north. But we firmly believe that an important part of any process of reconciliation is accountability,” he said.

The report, commissioned by Congress, catalogs alleged war crimes in heavy fighting in the northern tip of Sri Lanka earlier this year. Among other things, citing the accounts of the Tamil Tigers of recruiting children as fighters and use civilians as human shields.

It also contains reports of government forces of bombing nominal safe refuge areas for the Tamil civilians, killing the rebels trying to surrender and allowing humanitarian sad conditions prevail in the camps for displaced persons.

The State Department said it could not verify all the reports of diplomats, nongovernmental groups and media, but said they are credible.

He said the U.S. recognizes the right of a government to defend against attacks by terrorist groups, but hoped that both the state and nonstate actors to comply with international legal obligations.

The Tigers, long classified by the U.S. as a terror group, waged a 26-year war for a Tamil state in northern Iraq, mostly Sinhalese before his final defeat and surrender in May.