UNITED NATIONS—A U.N.-appointed panel found that allegations of war crimes committed by the Sri Lanka government and the Tamil Tigers during the final battles of their 27-year war are credible and could lead to formal charges if investigated.
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A file picture taken on May 23, 2009 shows a general view of the abandoned conflict zone where Tamil Tigers made their last stand before their defeat by the Sri Lankan army.
The panel's report also criticized the U.N. for not revealing casualty figures at the time. Doing so, it said, "would have strengthened the call for protection of civilians."
The struggle between Sri Lanka and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, came to an end after an intense battle over a 13.5 square mile area in the northeast of the country, where as many as 330,000 civilians were trapped between the warring sides, said the 216-page report.
The report said the government shelled "on a large scale" three No Fire Zones "where it had encouraged the civilian population to concentrate, even after indicating that it would cease the use of heavy weapons."
The report said the government also systemically shelled hospitals and food-distribution lines, and fired close to Red Cross ships coming to pick up wounded civilians.
The Tamil Tigers, meanwhile, barred civilians from fleeing, shooting some to keep them from escaping, the report said. The rebels forced civilians as young as 14 years old to fight, and used civilians to dig trenches and as "hostages" and a "strategic human buffer" in battle, the panel said.
"All this was done in a quest to pursue a war that was clearly lost," the report said, adding that "many civilians were sacrificed on the altar of the LTTE cause and its efforts to preserve its senior leadership."
The Sri Lankan government has denied the allegations. Tamil Tiger representatives couldn't be reached to comment.
Tens of thousands of civilians were killed in the final months of the battle, from January to May 2009. The government caused most of the civilian causalities in this final phase of the war, the report concluded.
The allegations of war crimes can't be prosecuted at the International Criminal Court, because Sri Lanka isn't a member. While the panel called on the Sri Lankan government to conduct a full investigation, it said that it has "little confidence that it will serve justice in the existing political environment" because of a lack of "political will."
The Sri Lankan government has mounted anti-U.N. rallies around the country to protest the report.
In a statement released with the report on Monday evening, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the panel's recommendation for an international investigation couldn't take place without Sri Lanka's consent or a decision by nations in an "appropriate intergovernmental forum."
Only the U.N. Security Council can order an ICC investigation in a country that doesn't belong to the court or refuses to carry out its own credible probe. Mr. Ban said he would review criticism of the U.N. made by the panel
—Julian E. Barnes contributed to this article.
Write to Joe Lauria at newseditor@wsj.com
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