The Global Tamil Forum

Wednesday, 15 December 2010

This is the official blog by the Global Tamil Forum, a group established by a number of world wide, grassroots Tamil organisations. Here we hope to keep you updated with our quest to secure a lasting peace in Sri Lanka based on justice, reconciliation and a negotiated political statement that all Sri Lankans can support.

A UN panel of experts established by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on June 22nd 2010 has been tasked with advising the Secretary General on the issue of accountability with regard to alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law during the final stages of the conflict in Sri Lanka.

The Panel, comprising Marzuki Darusman, Steven Ratner and Yasmin Sooka, began its work on 16th September 2010 and will look into the modalities, applicable international standards and comparative experience with regard to accountability processes, taking into consideration the nature and scope of any alleged violations in Sri Lanka.

A letter released publicly by the United Nations called for any organisation or individual willing to submit evidence by December 15th to do so. The GTF has sent its own submission of evidence to the panel in the hope that perpetrators of any and all alleged war crimes shall be brought to justice.

The panel is set to provide a report to the Secretary-General by January 2011. It will then be up to Ban Ki-Moon whether the recommendations from the Panel will be made public. Given the need for an open and honest accountability process, we hope that the Secretary-General will release the report to the public in due course.

http://gtfonline.blogspot.com/2010/12/gtf-submits-its-own-report-to-un-panel.html