{"id":49472,"date":"2012-07-26T16:52:46","date_gmt":"2012-07-26T16:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=49472"},"modified":"2012-08-05T20:55:39","modified_gmt":"2012-08-05T20:55:39","slug":"sri-lanka-says-investigations-of-alleged-tamil-killings-by-government-troops-may-take-5-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lanka-says-investigations-of-alleged-tamil-killings-by-government-troops-may-take-5-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka Says Investigations Of Alleged Tamil Killings By Government Troops May Take 5 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><strong>By\u00a0Associated Press\/ Washington Post &#8211;<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"article\">\n<div id=\"article_body\">\n<div>\n<article>COLOMBO, Sri Lanka \u2014 Sri Lanka estimated Thursday it may take up to five years to investigate alleged killings of ethnic Tamil civilians by government troops at the end of the country\u2019s devastating civil war \u2014 a timeframe criticized as an attempt to outlast international attention.\u00a0The government recommended that investigators conclude inquiries into alleged killings within a year and start court proceedings up to four years after that.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/human-rights-body-protests-atrocities-on-lankan-tamils\/channel-4-sri-lankas-killing-fields-1-colombotelegraph-5\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-37494\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-37494\" title=\"Channel 4 \u2018Sri Lanka\u2019s Killing Fields\u2019   1 colombotelegraph\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Channel-4-\u2018Sri-Lanka\u2019s-Killing-Fields\u2019-1-colombotelegraph.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"475\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Channel-4-\u2018Sri-Lanka\u2019s-Killing-Fields\u2019-1-colombotelegraph.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Channel-4-\u2018Sri-Lanka\u2019s-Killing-Fields\u2019-1-colombotelegraph-300x222.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/article>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"article-side-rail\">\n<div>Sri Lanka\u2019s government, which initially denied any abuses occurred, has come under intense international pressure to investigate allegations of summary executions, kidnappings and other abuses by troops just before they defeated separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in May 2009.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The rebels fought a quarter-century civil war to create a separate state for ethnic minority Tamils, citing marginalization by majority ethnic Sinhalese.<\/p>\n<p>Lawmaker Suresh Premachandran of the Tamil National Alliance, the largest party representing Tamils, dismissed the plan as one prepared for \u201cinternational consumption.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said the five-year timeframe is an attempt to drag on the process until the international community has forgotten the issue.<\/p>\n<p>Presidential spokesman Lalith Weeratunga told reporters the plan shows the government\u2019s keenness to move forward.<\/p>\n<p>A U.N. report released last year said government troops deliberately shelled civilians and hospitals and blocked food to people trapped in the war zone and said the rebels recruited child soldiers and held civilians as human shields. It said tens of thousands of civilians may have been killed in the final months of the conflict.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":37494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2187,1,2375],"tags":[1265,3196,2574,2701],"class_list":["post-49472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-most-popular","category-news","category-stories","tag-sri-lankas-killing-fields","tag-war-crimes-investigation-sri-lanka","tag-war-crimes-sri-lanka-latest","tag-war-crimes-sri-lanka-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sri Lanka Says Investigations Of Alleged Tamil Killings By Government Troops May Take 5 Years - 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