Sri Lankan nationalists protest UN rights chief's war crimes visit

Hundreds of hardline nationalists gathered outside the United Nations’ office in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo on Saturday to protest against a visit by the UN human rights chief who will assess Sri Lanka’s progress in prosecuting alleged war crimes.

The UN says both Sri Lanka’s military and the Tamil Tiger rebels most likely committed war crimes during a 26-year war which ended in 2009. A UN resolution calls for post-war reconciliation and that all alleged war crimes be investigated and tried in special courts by international judges.

However, many Sri Lankans oppose foreign involvement and supporters of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa believe the UN resolution aims to punish the military unfairly despite defeating the Tamil Tigers.

READ MORE: UN calls for special court to prosecute Sri Lanka war crimes from bloody 26-year conflict

Although the coalition of President Maithripala Sirisena has agreed to the resolution, the visit by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al-Hussein follows comments by Sirisena saying that foreign participation was not needed for an impartial inquiry into the war.

Al-Hussein began his four-day visit to Sri Lanka by visiting the UN office in Colombo to meeting officials.

Hours afterwards, protesters outside shouted “al-Hussein, hands off Sri Lanka” and “where were you when people in Afghanistan and Iraq were killed?”.