The Sri Lankan army led massive amount of indiscriminate killing at the end of the civil war, and has since tried to destroy evidence of its crimes, a new report has found.
The report released by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) in Australia claimed that Sri Lanka committed the 'vast majority' of crimes in a final offensive against Tamil Tiger separatists in May 2009.
The probe comes ahead of a session at the UN Human Rights Council next month in which the United States is due to move a third resolution pressing Sri Lanka to investigate the conduct of its troops or face further international censure at the UNHRC meet, Dawn News reports.
According to Dawn News, the PIAC's International Crimes Evidence Project (ICEP) report entitled "Island of Impunity?" included material from independent international experts, UN staff members and new witness testimony.
The report claimed that the Sri Lankan government was exhuming and destroying evidence of mass civilian deaths.
The ICEP said it had obtained testimony from unidentified new witnesses that members of the Sri Lankan security forces had destroyed forensic evidence after the conflict.
Sri Lanka's military rejected the report as old allegations and denied there had been any digging up of graves to destroy evidence, the report added.