In May, the ICG and HRW released their reports accusing Sri Lankan government of war crimes.

The Brussels based ICG in its report stated that tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were killed, countless more wounded, and hundreds of thousands deprived of adequate food and medical care, resulting in more deaths.

The ICG also blamed the troops for deliberately attacking hospitals including Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital in the former LTTE held areas.

The HRW report was released few days after the ICG report. With photo evidence, the HRW report included a picture where a LTTE cadre being tied to a tree and surrounded by Sri Lankan soldiers. The other photos showed his dead body with additional injuries on his head and torso.

Its report said the photo series did not prove whether the man was executed while in custody but the available evidence indicates that a full investigation was necessary.

Meanwhile, S. Sritharana, a Tamil legislator from the northern Jaffna District claimed he had seen a mass grave at Ganeshapuram in Kilinochchil, the former capital of the LTTE. Sritharana claimed some bodies wrapped in black polythene bags were seen buried.

On the other hand, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G. L. Peiris accusing the pro-LTTE NGOs (non-governmental organizations) for still targeting Sri Lanka unnecessarily said that a couple of NGOs do not constitute the international community. "The UN Human Rights Council debated this matter and there were representatives from all six continents and 29 countries thought there was no need to take any action, 11 countries thought otherwise, with six abstentions," Peiris said.

He stressed Sri Lanka was ready to take up the matter at the Security Council, the General Assembly, and the UN Human Rights Council, but not any other forums.

Commenting on the ICG report Peiris said its language was vague and nebulous.

He claimed the ICG had failed to present any evidence and there was a lot of cloak-and-dagger stuff in the report.