UN rights chief faults Sri Lanka probe of alleged wartime abuses

Indian Tamil activists of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) party burn an effigy and portraits of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa during a protest in New Delhi, India, Friday, Feb. 8, 2013. Various pro-Tamil groups and leaders are protesting Rajapaksa’s visit holding him responsible for the killing of innocent Tamils during the civil war in Sri Lanka. Rajapaksa is on a personal visit to the country. (AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal) (The Associated Press)

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, center, along with his wife Shiranthi Rajapaksa visit the Mahabodhi temple in the town of Bodhgaya, believed to be the place where Buddha attained enlightenment, India, Friday, Feb. 8, 2013. Various Tamil groups and leaders are protesting Rajapaksa’s visit holding him responsible for the killing of innocent Tamils during the civil war in Sri Lanka. Rajapaksa is on a personal visit to the country. (AP Photo/Manish Bhandari) (The Associated Press)

GENEVA – The U.N.'s top human rights official says Sri Lanka is failing to properly investigate its government's alleged abuses toward the end of a bloody quarter-century civil war.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says opposition leaders are still being killed or abducted and the government has not yet made arrests or prosecutions in cases of disappearances.

Pillay said in a report Wednesday that Sri Lankan authorities must permit international experts to probe allegations of serious human rights violations from a war that the U.N. estimates killed 80,000 to 100,000 people.

In May 2009, the government, dominated by the ethnic Sinhalese majority, defeated the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, who were demanding an independent Tamil nation after decades of perceived discrimination.

Sri Lanka's government disputes many of the report's findings.