Lankan Army agrees to probe 'civilian war causalities' allegation

Colombo, Feb 16 (ANI): The Sri Lankan Army has agreed to launch an investigation into claims that its troops may have caused civilian casualties in the final stages of their bloody civil war against Tamil rebels in 2009.

The army said that its commander Lt-Gen Jagath Jayasuriya, had appointed a five-member court of inquiry to examine two separate reports, that of a presidentially-appointed war panel, the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), and a documentary by the British commercial TV station, Channel 4.

The documentary, broadcast in June, claimed that the government side was responsible for mass civilian deaths through bombardment and that soldiers executed Tamil Tiger suspects who had been taken prisoner.

Until now the government has described video footage used by Channel 4 as fake, but the army said it would be probed 'irrespective of its authenticity or otherwise,' The BBC reports.

According to the report, the army says that some civilians may have been shot as they were captured or as they surrendered.

The LLRC report, which was published in December, claimed that the security forces might be implicated in specific instances of civilian deaths and that these should be investigated.

The LLRC exonerated the armed forces from any deliberate targeting of civilians, in contrast to some international human rights groups, which said the rules of war were broken and tens of thousands of civilians died.

Meanwhile, the army chief said that if it found evidence of a prima facie case 'against any person', the alleged offenders would be tried in a court martial. (ANI)