Sri Lankan army still using sexual violence, torture against Tamils: Report

The United Nations Human Rights Council is set to examine whether the Sri Lankan government adequately followed up on it commitments in a March 2012 resolution to provide justice and accountability for wartime abuses.

The council is expected to pass a resolution calling on Sri Lanka to do more to work towards reconciliation and India is likely to support the motion.

Human Rights Watch has now called for the council to direct the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to conduct an independent international investigation.

"The government's response to allegations of sexual violence by its security forces have been dismissive, deeming them as 'fake' or 'pro-LTTE propaganda'.

"It's not clear who in the government knew about these horrific crimes. But the government's failure to take action against these ongoing abuses is further evidence of the need

for an international investigation," Brad Adams, Asia director at HRW, said in a statement.

"The Sri Lankan security forces have committed untold numbers of rapes of Tamil men and women in custody. These are not just wartime atrocities but continue to the present, putting every Tamil man and woman arrested for suspected LTTE involvement at serious risk," he added.

HRW said most of the Tamils it interviewed for its report spoke with its investigators outside of Sri Lanka and researchers corroborated their stories with medical and legal records.

"Because Human Rights Watch was unable to

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