"In Sri Lanka, this is further complicated by the fact that responsibility for many of the alleged crimes rests with the country’s senior civilian and military leadership, including President Rajapakse and his brothers and opposition candidate General Fonseka".

From WikiLeaks cables: 'Sri Lankan president responsible for massacre of Tamils'. See story below.

This is the same number that was flagged as the casulty figure over a year ago, only to be ridiculed by government. The difference now is that the UN Panel report is itself suggesting the accurate number of those killed is closer to 40,000. See the article that appeared in The Independent in January 2010 below.

Even if the actual figure of those killed in 7,721, which is what the Govt itself admits to, what do we make of the testimony by the Army to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), also repeatedly made by the Rajapaska's, of a 'zero casualty policy'?

Hypocrisy much?

Does the UN's failure go well beyond the failure to note in public the huge civilian toll in the final stages of war?

As noted in this Inner City Press article,

"Before surrendering Tamil Tiger leaders were shot to death last year, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff Vijay Nambiar says he was assured they would be treated like normal prisoners of war by Mahinda Rajapaksa, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and Palitha Kohona, currently Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the UN.

On May 28, Mr. Kohona told Inner City Press that he never provided such assurance. Since this differs from what Vijay Nambiar told Al Jazeera Inner City Press inquired further."

What further revelations about the UN's behaviour will The Cage, written by former UN spokesperson Gordon Weiss, reveal?

Though the Govt said otherwise, it was widely reported that the Sri Lankan Army was shelling medical facilites in the Vanni.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), as early as May 2009, cited the repeated shelling of medical facilities in the Vanni as evidence of war crimes.