UN Rights Body Urges More Thorough Sri Lanka Probe

GENEVA (AP) - The U.N.'s top human rights body has approved a U.S.-sponsored resolution calling on Sri Lanka to more thoroughly probe allegations of war crimes and other abuses during its quarter-century civil war.

By a 25-13 vote, the 47-nation Human Rights Council urged Sri Lanka's government "to initiate credible and independent actions" to ensure justice and accountability for its conduct during the civil war.

The resolution follows a U.N. report alleging the government may be to blame for thousands of civilian deaths during the military campaign to defeat Tamil Tiger rebels.

Sri Lanka and other opponents criticized the measure as unfairly selective, but rights groups and foreign governments have called for an independent probe of the civil war that ended in 2009, after the government troops crushed the separatist rebels.