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The Report of the Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka was a 2011 report produced by a panel of experts appointed by United Nations Secretary-General (UNSG) Ban Ki-moon to advise him on the issue of accountability with regard to any alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law during the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War. The report is referred to by some as the Darusman Report, after the name of the chairman of the panel (Indonesian politician Marzuki Darusman).
The panel's work revealed "a very different version of the final stages of the war than that maintained to this day by the Government of Sri Lanka". The panel found "credible allegations" which, if proven, indicated that war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed by the Sri Lankan military and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers). The panel concluded that "the conduct of the war represented a grave assault on the entire regime of international law designed to protect individual dignity during both war and peace". The panel found that as many as 40,000 civilians may have been killed in the final months of the civil war, most as a result of indiscriminate shelling by the Sri Lankan military. The panel has called on the UNSG to conduct an independent international investigation into the alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law committed by both sides. The Sri Lankan government has rejected the entire report, calling it "fundamentally flawed in many respects", and as being based on "patently biased" and unverified material.
A competing report was produced by Sri Lanka's Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). In 2012, the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) issued a statement welcoming the publication of this report (while acknowledging problems therein) and urging the Sri Lankan government to follow up by working with the UNHRC. The LLRC report has been praised in Sri Lanka, but criticised by opponents of the island's government.
Background.
The final months of the Sri Lankan Civil War resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians, the displacement of more than 350,000, and allegations of gross violations of international and humanitarian law by both sides. Foreign governments, international human groups and Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora groups all called for an independent investigation. Immediately following the end of the civil war in May 2009, UNSG Ban Ki-moon visited Sri Lanka. At end of the trip the UNSG and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa issued a joint statement in which the Sri Lankan government agreed to take measures on accountability for violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.
In the following months the Sri Lankan government failed to take any meaningful steps on accountability and more evidence emerged of alleged violations during the final months of the civil war. As pressure grew for an international inquiry the UNSG appointed a three-member panel of experts in June 2010 to advise him on accountability issues relating to alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in the final stages of the civil war. The panel looked into "accountability with regard to any alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law" and whether the commitment on "human rights accountability" given by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to Ban Ki-moon has been implemented. The panel examined "the modalities, applicable international standards and comparative experience with regard to accountability processes, taking into account the nature and scope of any alleged violations in Sri Lanka".
The Sri Lankan government reacted angrily to the panel's appointment, calling it "an unwarranted and unnecessary interference with a sovereign nation". It stated that the panel would not be allowed to enter Sri Lanka, a move criticised by Darusman. The panel's appointment was welcomed by the United States and EU but criticised by Russia and China. The panel met for the first time on 19 July 2010.
On 12 April 2011 the panel handed over its report to the Secretary-General who passed on a copy to the Sri Lankan government. The Sri Lankan government immediately rejected the report as "fundamentally flawed" and "patently biased". The report wasn't initially made public but the UN said it would be made public in due course. Human rights called on the UN to make the report public. On 16 April 2011 the report was published in "The Island", an independently owned nationalist Sri Lankan newspaper. It had been suggested that the Sri Lankan government leaked the report so that it could issue a full rebuttal before of the report is officially made public by the UN. The Sri Lankan government did not make a formal reply and on 25 April 2011 the UN published the full report.
Members.
The members of the panel were:
The report.
Executive summary.
The evidence obtained by the panel revealed "a very different version of the final stages of the war than that maintained to this day by the Government of Sri Lanka". The panel found "credible allegations, which if proven, indicate that a wide range of serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law were committed both by the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE, some of which would amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity". The panel concluded that the "conduct of the war represented a grave assault on the entire regime of international law designed to protect individual dignity during both war and peace".
The panel found "credible allegations" that the Sri Lankan military/government killed civilians through widespread shelling; shelled hospitals and humanitarian objects; denied humanitarian assistance; violated the human rights of civilians and Tamil Tiger combatants; and it violated the human rights of those outside the conflict zone such as the media. The panel found "credible allegations" that the Tamil Tigers used civilians as a human buffer; killed civilians attempting to escape Tamil Tiger control; used military equipment in the proximity of civilians; forcibly recruited children; used forced labour; and killed civilians using suicide attacks.
Specific findings of the panel:
The report states that the "credible allegations" demand a serious investigation and the prosecution of those responsible. If the allegations are proved senior commanders, military and political, on both sides are liable for prosecution under international criminal law. The panel noted the Sri Lankan government's attempt at accountability consisted solely of investigating the actions of the previous government and the Tamil Tigers, and not of the present government's actions during the final stages of the war. The panel concluded this is not in accordance with international standards and fell "dramatically short of international expectations". The panel found the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission established by the Sri Lankan government to be "deeply flawed" and not up to international standards of independence and impartiality due to the "deep-seated conflicts of interests" of some of its members. The mandate of the LLRC, its work and methodology meant that it was incapable of investigating the serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law or of examining the causes of the civil war. The panel concluded that the LLRC could not satisfy the commitment on accountability given by President Rajapaksa and Bank Ki-moon.
The panel found that the Sri Lankan justice system was incapable of providing accountability. The independence of the Attorney General had been eroded and the continuation of Emergency Regulations and the Prevention of Terrorism Act precluded the judiciary from holding the government accountable on human rights issues. Military courts and other domestic institutions were also incapable of providing accountability. The panel found that the government's triumphalism and the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora's inability to acknowledge the Tamil Tigers' role in the humanitarian disaster also hindered accountability.
The panel criticised the UN for not protecting civilians. Its reluctance to release casualty figures undermined the call to protect civilians.
The panel made a number of recommendations, including that there be an independent international investigation into the alleged violations of international law and that the Sri Lankan government carry out genuine investigations of the alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law committed by both sides.
Civilian death numbers.
The panel found that even two years after the end of the civil war there were no accurate, reliable figures for the number of civilian deaths during the final months of the civil war. This was caused by lack of accurate figures for the number of civilians and Tamil Tigers in the conflict area, and the number of who emerged from the conflict area; and the burial of dead bodies without deaths being registered.
A UN document estimated that 7,721 civilians were killed between August 2008 and 13 May 2009. The panel found that this figure was probably too low because it only included deaths recorded by UN observers whereas many deaths may not have been observed, and because the figures only go up to 13 May 2009 whereas the number of deaths would have increased sharply after this date to the intensifying of shelling. Many civilians were left where they died, their deaths never registered and their bodies never brought to hospital or buried. The panel concluded that the number of civilian deaths "could easily be several times" that in the UN document.
The panel detailed a couple of techniques that could be used to estimate the death toll. It is estimated that there were 40,000 surgical procedures and 5,000 amputations performed during the final months of the civil war. Using deaths to injuries ratios of 1:2 or 1:3, it is estimated that there were between 15,000 and 22,500 civilian deaths. Another technique subtracted the number of civilians who ended up in the IDP camps (290,000) from the number of civilians in the "Safe Zone" (330,000) plus those who escaped the conflict zone before the establishment of the "Safe Zone" (35,000), giving a civilian death total of 75,000.
The panel noted that the UN's decision not to provide specific figures made civilian casualties "less newsworthy". The UN's reluctance may have been due to pressure from the Sri Lankan government and fear of losing access to the conflict area.
The panel found that a number of credible sources have estimated that the number of civilian deaths could have been as much as 40,000. It called for a proper investigation to identify all the victims and to calculate an accurate figure for the total number of civilian deaths.
Reaction.
Sri Lanka.
The Sri Lankan government issued a short statement on 13 April 2011 which condemned the report as "fundamentally flawed in many respects" and "patently biased material which is presented without any verification". Later on the government elaborated on its criticisms of the report, which it calls the "Darusman Report". According to the government the report was characterized by "fundamental deficiencies, inherent prejudices and malicious intentions" and that it was "legally, morally and substantively flawed".
Later Sri Lankan Government made Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission as an alternative to Darusman report.
The main opposition United National Party has echoed the prevailing critical note in Sri Lanka, calling the report an "unwarranted interference", but it has blamed the government for creating "an environment that gave space for the compilation of such a report". The UNP has called the government to implement some of the report's recommendations, such as scrapping emergency laws, relaxing the Prevention of Terrorism Act and issuing death certificates to those who disappeared during the civil war.
The Tamil National Alliance, the largest political party representing the Sri Lankan Tamils, issued a statement on 18 April 2011 welcoming the report and its findings, stating that the report "confirms the truth of what happened to the unarmed Tamil civilians in the course of the conduct of the recently concluded war and is an irrefutable confirmation of the accounts of the events as reported by us to Parliament as and when they occurred". The statement welcomed the reports recommendations and hoped that "they will be honestly implemented". The statement noted the panel's observation that at present there wasn't "an environment conducive to accountability which would permit a candid appraisal of the broad patterns of the past, including the root causes of the long-running ethno-nationalist conflict". The statement urged the Sri Lankan government "not to miss this opportunity and to constructively engage in a process which would result in all the Peoples of Sri Lanka being the beneficiaries of genuine democracy, equality and justice". The TNA's reaction to the report has led to a