Sri Lanka Panel Clears Military of Civilian Deaths

Posted December 16th, 2011 at 5:55 am (UTC-5)
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A Sri Lankan war commission has cleared the military of deliberately targeting civilians in the final stages of the country's civil war.

The government-appointed Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission said it was “satisfied” security forces had taken precautions to keep civilian casualties to a minimum.

The 440-page report was presented to parliament Friday.

The commission was created last year amid intense international pressure to investigate alleged human rights violations committed by the military and Tamil Tiger rebels in the final phase of the Sri Lanka's 25-year civil war.

The war ended in 2009 with the military's defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels.

A United Nations report issued in April said tens of thousands of civilians may have been killed due to government shelling of hospitals and other civilian targets. The report said the military's actions could amount to war crimes and called for the U.N. to establish a special body to investigate further.

The Sri Lanka government has denied it committed war crimes during the conflict.