| dc.description.abstract | Sri Lanka having fought a thirty year internal war has achieved many victories apart
from the victory on the battle ground in the aftermath of the conflict. Such include
the preservation of territorial integrity, racial harmony and restorative justice to
victims of war. However, as a state, SL has failed to counter any of the allegations
made by the international community on the events happened during the last stages
of the war against the LTTE. Accountability of a combatant on the battlefield is a
process which needs to be done after careful consideration of all aspects. This paper
discusses the IHL violations alleged by the Darusman Report and issues relating to
accountability. Data were collected through a sample of 30 officers and other ranks
from the Sri Lanka Army using snowball method to select officers and other ranks
who were directly engaged in the battle field during the final stages of the war. Indepth
and semi-structured interviews were held to ascertain their views on the
aspects of war crimes allegations, the role of officers in battlefield and issues of
command responsibility and issues relating to accountability of foot soldier viz a viz
superior orders as a defence, and to ascertain the training needs of the combat
troops in light of laws relating to conduct of hostilities. A descriptive analysis was
done on the findings and suitable recommendations were discussed. | en_US |
