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Message: <blockquote data-quote="lkdood" data-source="post: 12714108" data-attributes="member: 92282"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/voDdc.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Sri Lanka says it will conduct its own investigation into rights  abuses during the final months of the island nation’s civil war when  thousands of civilians reportedly died, dismissing the need for an  international tribunal.Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G.M. Peiris spoke Friday after  meeting Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and presenting his  government’s plans for reconciliation and reconstruction following the  25-year conflict. Ties have been strained by U.S. sponsorship of a resolution passed by  the U.N. human rights council in March to press Sri Lanka to conduct an  independent probe into civilian deaths in the final months of the war  that ended in 2009, when ethnic Tamil rebels’ battle for an independent  state was crushed by Sri Lanka’s military. Peiris said Sri Lanka’s  attorney general has begun an inquiry into several incidents that a  government-appointed reconciliation commission said required further  investigation, and would assess whether there was adequate evidence for  criminal proceedings. He said security forces would not be immune from  prosecution.  “The local enquiry has just started,” Peiris told  reporters. “It has to be given reasonable opportunity to move forward  and to come to a conclusion. Until that is done, any kind of  intervention by any kind of international tribunal is premature.” Human  rights groups have accused Sri Lanka of foot-dragging and evasion on  the issue.The reconciliation commission, which convened in 2010 and  delivered its report last December, gathered evidence on the conflict  from both sides, but rights groups say it failed to investigate, for  example, the use of heavy artillery against civilian areas as possible  war crimes. A U.N. report found that up to 40,000 people died in the  final five months of the war and said Sri Lankan troops deliberately  targeted civilians. It said Tamil rebels used civilians in the shrinking  battle zone as human shields. Sri Lanka’s government has also  been criticized for failing to act on the reconciliation commission’s  recommendations, including that it give more power to Tamils in areas  where they are in the majority. Tamils have long been discriminated  against by the island’s majority ethnic Sinhalese. State  Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Sri Lanka on Friday  presented a “serious and comprehensive” plan for implementing the  recommendations that now needed to be made public and put into practice. Peiris  said resettlement of the 300,000 people displaced by the war was nearly  complete, and the economy in the former conflict zone’s in the island’s  north was growing fast. According to Nuland, Clinton also urged  “accountability” in probing the war crimes allegations “to strengthen  reconciliation, public confidence inside and outside Sri Lanka, and,  frankly, to speed the healing of the country.” Both Clinton and  Peiris spoke on the importance of U.S.-Sri Lankan relations. Peiris  referred to excellent defense cooperation and the potential for stronger  economic ties. Nuland said the U.S. was encouraged by Sri Lankan  efforts to reduce its dependence on crude oil from Iran, which Peiris  said had declined about 20 percent in the past two years.<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0c/Associated_Press_logo_2012.svg/30px-Associated_Press_logo_2012.svg.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></blockquote>

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