Colombo (dpa) – Clergy from various faiths on Monday held a demonstration in Colombo to protest a US-backed resolution against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council that calls for a probe into alleged war crimes during the civil war that ended in 2009. A pro-government organization called the National Movement to Safeguard the Freedom of Sri Lanka rallied more than 5,000 clergy, most of them Buddhist monks for the protest. The clergy held a peaceful march before they took part in a religious ceremony attended by Christian, Muslim and Hindu religious figures. The campaign comes ahead of a vote on the resolution during UN Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva, which end on March 23. Both Tamil Tiger rebels and government forces have been accused of war crimes during the civil war. The resolution calls on the Sri Lanka government to investigate alleged war crimes and promote reconciliation. Some 40,000 people are believed to have been killed in the final months of the war in the north eastern part of the country. The government has admitted that 8,000 civilians were killed in the final phase of the war. Government forces defeated the rebels in May 2009, bringing the 26-year-old conflict to an end. More than 100,000 people are believed to have been killed in the war. A key Tamil party in Sri Lanka is supporting the resolution. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/Q67jx Tags: Monks, Protest, Sri Lanka, United States Section: Human Rights, Latest News, North America, South Asia
