Police today clashed with protesters led by a Sri Lanka cabinet minister who vowed to besiege the UN office until Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon dissolves a panel advising him on possible war crimes.
Sri Lanka's government is furious at Mr Ban's appointment of the three-member panel on June 22nd, saying it is a violation of its sovereignty and a hypocritical application of double standards by Western governments engaged in the war on terror.
The panel is to advise Mr Ban if any crimes were committed in the final months of Sri Lanka's quarter-century conflict with the Tamil Tiger separatists, in which government forces won total victory in May 2009.
Engineering Services and Construction Minister Wimal Weerawansa, a firebrand nationalist ally of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, led several hundred people to the entrance of UN headquarters in the capital Colombo.
"We will hold a fast unto death until the withdrawal of Moon's panel," Mr Weerawansa told the crowd of demonstrators, who had vowed to stop U.N. staff from leaving the premises.
The demonstrators chanted "Hands off UN!" and burned an effigy of Mr Ban. A large sign in front of the UN headquarters read "Ban Ki-Pimp: US puppet".
Later, police set up a cordon to allow UN staff to leave, and then began skirmishing with protesters. A former legislator allied to Mr Weerawansa was struck and sent to hospital, as was a senior police inspector and at least six others.
Mr Weerawansa had already threatened to hold UN staff hostage to force the panel's dissolution, but the government swiftly said it was not Sri Lanka's official position.
Sri Lanka views Mr Ban's panel as an unnecessary affront to its sovereignty, given it has its own commission investigating rights violations. However, Sri Lanka has a four-decade history of commissions tasked with investigating abuses that have produced little.
Sri Lanka is under pressure from the West, after rights watchdogs took advantage of the anniversary of the war's end to renew a push for an international inquiry into what they say are tens of thousands of civilian deaths.
The government denies soldiers committed any crimes, and says the casualty numbers are hugely inflated by Tiger supporters who live in the West as refugees and fear they will lose that status now that the war is over.
Reuters