Sri Lanka army court clears troops of allegations

A Sri Lankan army court of inquiry has, in a new report, cleared the military over allegations of targeting civilian locations during the final stages of the country's civil war, the army media unit said on Wednesday. Human rights groups had raised doubts over investigations carried out by the army as the allegations are against the army in relation to some incidents reported during the war. A war commission known as the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), appointed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa soon after the 30-year war ended in May 2009, has made some observations pertaining to the army and allegations made by Britain's Channel 4 television. The commander of the army convened a Court of Inquiry to investigate and submitted a report on the observations made by the LLRC. The court examined senior field commanders and infantry, armory, artillery, intelligence, civil affairs and medical officers who had participated in the humanitarian operation. From the evidence presented, the Court of Inquiry concluded that the Tamil Tiger rebels had violated international laws with impunity by committing various unlawful acts inter alia, using civilians as human shields, placing artillery and other heavy weapons amidst civilian concentrations and illegal conscription of civilians, including children and old people, for combat purposes thus exposing them to danger, the army said. The army media unit also said the court noted that the international community had failed in their duty to stop war crimes committed by the Tamil Tigers. In his concluding remarks the army commander stated that in any war, even those fought by Western powers using state-of-the-art hi- tech equipment, civilian casualties are inevitable due to the vagaries of war.