Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last year, the UN Secretary-General appointed a panel of experts to advise him on the issue of accountability with regard to alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law during the final stages of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka. In April this year the panel delivered its report, in which it found there is credible evidence that both government forces and the LTTE had committed war crimes. Tonight, Australians will see on Four Corners disturbing footage taken during the final months of the conflict which appears to show civilians being used as human shields by the Tamil Tigers; civilians in no-fire zones, including in hospitals, being bombed by government forces; and evidence of systemic rape and executions.

The UN panel noted that addressing violations of international humanitarian and human rights law is not a matter of choice or policy; it is a duty under domestic and international law. However, it found that the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Com­mission set up by the Sri Lankan government is deeply flawed in its mandate, its meth­odology and its failure to satisfy key international standards of independence and impartiality. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has also noted that 'justice will be essential if there is to be true reconciliation after this terrible and divisive conflict.'

As I stated in my notice of motion on Sri Lanka on 1 June 2009:

Openness, accountability, compassion, full respect for human rights and an inclusive process of dialogue between representatives of all ethnic communities will support the course of reconciliation that must occur in Sri Lanka's near future to avoid a return to the past. This is my humble plea in the spirit of the great friendship between our countries.

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