New report raises pressure on Sri Lanka over \\\'war crimes\\\'

COLOMBO, Feb 5 (AFP): Sri Lanka's army led an orgy of indiscriminate killing at the climax of the island's civil war, and has since tried to destroy evidence of its crimes, a new investigation published Wednesday by foreign experts claimed.

A report released by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) in Australia claimed that soldiers committed the "vast majority" of crimes in a final government offensive against Tamil Tiger separatists in May 2009.

The probe comes ahead of a session at the UN Human Rights Council next month at which the US is due to move a third resolution pressing Sri Lanka to investigate the conduct of its troops or face further international censure.

Sri Lanka has resisted repeated calls for an international inquiry into allegations that up to 40,000 civilians were killed by government forces during the bloody finale to a conflict that dragged on for 37 years.