Lanka notifies UN over war crimes resolution withdrawal

Sri Lanka yesterday notified the UN that it was withdrawing from a United Nations resolution for investigating alleged war crimes committed during a decades-long conflict with Tamil separatists. "I wish to place on record Sri Lanka's decision to withdraw from co-sponsorship of resolution 40/1 on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights," Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena told the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa earlier this month had said Sri Lanka was withdrawing from the resolution that the country's previous government had endorsed. Rajapaksa was president when Sri Lankan troops defeated Tamil Tiger guerrillas in 2009, but rights groups accused the army of killing at least 40,000 Tamil civilians in the final months of the conflict. His brother Gotabaya, who is now president, was defence secretary at the time.