UN report damns failings during Sri Lankan civil war climax

weak UN response has contributed to 30,000 deaths of civilians during the final assault on the government of Tamil Tigers

A UN report has criticized internally for its own officials for failing to protect civilians during the final days of the civil war in Sri Lanka for decades, saying they could have done to save more lives.

More than 30,000 civilians were killed in clashes between militant Tamil separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the country's armed forces in fighting that led to the defeat of LTTE May 2009.

The Sri Lankan army was responsible for the most deaths by many observers and is accused of indiscriminately shelling areas where a small number of fighters are mixed with large crowds refugees. The authorities deny the charge.

The report, leaked to the BBC, should be submitted to the General Assembly of the UN, Ban Ki-moon in New York on Wednesday. Sri Lanka organization operating Pinta paralyzed by a lack of experience and sensitive to government intimidation.

The UN should "be able to respond to a much higher standard in fulfilling its responsibilities for protection and humanitarian assistance," he said.

According to the BBC, the report states that "many senior UN officials perceive not prevent the massacre of civilians as their responsibility ... and heads of department and agency of the UN [headquarters] not otherwise instructed. "There it is said," the constant and institutionalized reluctance "among UN staff in Sri Lanka" to defend the rights of persons who have been authorized to help. "

• former United Nations staff who serve in Sri Lanka at the time say they have been forced to make difficult decisions under great pressure. The report, the work of a group headed by former UN official Charles Petrie, explains in detail how the organization has failed to present reliable data on the number of victims of the fighting and casualties. He criticized an earlier decision to withdraw UN staff in the areas where most of the executions took place later, because the Government of Sri Lanka stated that his safety could not be guaranteed.

The Government of Sri Lanka, dominated by nationalist politicians of the Sinhalese majority, found that public opinion does not prevent the eradication of the LTTE in a final, brutal campaign that would end the old civil war of 25 years of war in the island.

The Tamil Tigers were responsible for numerous violations of human rights in areas under their control in the northern part of the country, including the forced recruitment of young people for their army. He also opened the tactic of suicide bombing.

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