Sri Lankan civil war: Ban says UN report to have ‘profound implications’

London: A damming UN report on its failure to protect civilians in Sri Lanka`s civil war will have ‘profound implications’ for the global body, UN chief Ban Ki-moon says.

“This finding has profound implications for our work across the world,” Ban said as the report was released. “I am determined that the United Nations draws the appropriate lessons and does its utmost to earn the confidence of the world`s people, especially those caught in conflict who look to the organisation for help,” he added. The internal review concluded that various UN agencies had failed at every level to meet their responsibilities in the last months of Sri Lanka’s civil war, in which thousands of civilians lost their lives. According to the Telegraph, the review criticised the UN secretariat, UN Security Council and staff in Sri Lanka. The UN, under intense pressure from Sri Lankan authorities, did not make public that "a large majority" of deaths in the closing months of war in 2009 were caused by government shelling, the report said. UN experts have said tens of thousands of civilians were killed between January and May 2009 as government forces launched a final onslaught on Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) separatists in the north of the country. According to the paper, human rights groups have given a toll of up to 40,000 dead. ANI