# UN Panel of Experts report on accountability (31 March 2011 (published April 2011))

URL: https://allhistories.com/sri-lanka/timeline/2011-un-panel-of-experts-report-on-accountability
Location: Colombo, Sri Lanka
Themes: main-event

A three-member Panel of Experts, chaired by Marzuki Darusman with Yasmin Sooka and Steven Ratner, dated its report on accountability in Sri Lanka 31 March 2011. It was handed to the UN Secretary-General on 12 April and published in full on 25 April. The panel found credible allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity by both the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE. It said government forces carried out widespread shelling that caused most civilian deaths, including attacks on hospitals and a UN hub, and that the LTTE held about 330,000 civilians as human shields and forcibly recruited children. It estimated that up to 40,000 civilians may have died, a figure that remains disputed. A UN document it cited counted 7,721 deaths between August 2008 and May 2009. The government called the report fundamentally flawed and based on biased material, and refused the panel entry to the country. The panel called for an independent international investigation, and its findings fed the Human Rights Council resolutions of 2012 onwards. Estimates of the dead, from tens of thousands to higher figures, remain contested among governments, researchers and advocacy groups. At this point in the timeline (2011), President Mahinda Rajapaksa (19 November 2005 – 9 January 2015) was head of state of Sri Lanka; Prime Minister D. M. Jayaratne (21 April 2010 – 9 January 2015) led the government.

## Why it matters
The report set the terms of the long international debate over wartime accountability and contested casualty figures, and it shaped Sri Lanka's diplomatic relations with Western states and the UN for over a decade.

Ruler at the Time: [Mahinda Rajapaksa](https://allhistories.com/sri-lanka/rulers/mahinda-rajapaksa-377)

Prime Minister: D. M. Jayaratne (Sri Lanka Freedom Party)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Report of the Secretary General's Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Report_of_the_Secretary-General%27s_Panel_of_Experts_on_Accountability_in_Sri_Lanka)
- [Wikipedia — Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lessons_Learnt_and_Reconciliation_Commission)
- [Wikipedia — Human rights in Sri Lanka](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Sri_Lanka)