FILE PHOTO: This handout photo released by the Sri Lankan Army on April 22, 2009 shows Sri Lankan soldiers distributing food to Tamil civilians, claimed to be escaping from Tamil Tiger-controlled areas in the northeast of the island on April 21, 2009. The UN has estimated that 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed by government forces in the final months of its battle to defeat the Tamil Tiger rebels, who had fought for independence. - AFP PHOTO/HO/Sri Lankan Army
COLOMBO: The United Nations human rights chief urged Sri Lanka on Tuesday (June 24) to ensure accountability for crimes committed during its protracted ethnic war.
Volker Turk told a panel discussion in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo that the country must address the question of impunity during the Tamil separatist war, which was brought to a bloody conclusion in 2009.
