as leader. anchor: this is al jazeera and these are the top stories. it is being reported the united states has carried out an airstrike in syria targeting structures that belong to iran-backed fighters. it is thought the strike targeted the notary base near albo comal. the strike was approved by president joe biden. warnings that brazils health system is on the verge of collapse. the health minister says his country is facing a new stage of coronavirus pandemic with a mutated variant of the virus

three times more contagious. we have more from rio de janeiro. reporter: both in the north end in the south, hospitals are on the verge of collapse. the state of sao paulo, the richest state of brazil has just started restricting people from circulating between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.. by year and the northeast -- yeah in the northeast of brazil, they have shut down all essential visit -- essential businesses until next monday. anchor: that of the european commission says the eu is on track to fully vaccinate 70% of adults by the end of summer despite criticism of its slow rollout. eu leaders use the summit to put pressure on astrazeneca over delayed covid-19 vaccine supplies. thousands of armenians protested for and against the prime minister. he fired his military chief after senior army officials

called for his resignation. he said it amounts to a coup. u.s. president joe biden and king salman of saudi arabia have spoken before the expected release of an american intelligence report on the murder of jamal khashoggi. they discussed washington's quitman to help riyadh defend itself against iranian backed rebels. the government of sri lanka passed a law allowing for people who die of covid-19 to be buried. under previous rules, they had to be cremated which caused an outcry within the country's muslim minority. some protested to demand an end to the forced cremations. those are the headlines. the news continues here after "inside story."

mohammed: justice denied in sri lanka. the u.n. says@@ the country is failing to pursue crimes from the civil war, but sri lanka's leaders reject this. will they ever find out the truth about what happened? this is "inside story." welcome to the program. it has been 12 years since the civil war in sri lanka ended. more than 20,000 people disappeared. government troops and the tamil separatist they were fighting were both accused of murder and torture, particularly toward the end of the conflict. since then, the un's is little has been done to find out what

happened. the humans rights achieve says victims have been denied justice and aused the government of further eroding human rights. the leaders rejected the accusations. we will bring our guests in the moment. at first, this report. reporter: nearly 12 years after the end of the civil war, the pain is still raw for those who sons, daughters and husband's disappeared. this is a protest earlier this month. they want answers, accountability, and justice. they are not getting any because the united nations human rights council says the highest levels of the sri lanka government are in denial about past crimes. we -- it it -- the independence of the judiciary, the human rights commission of sri lanka, the national police commission and now key bodies have been deeply eroded by the 20th

constitutional amendment. reporter: his brother was the president at the end of the civil war. 100 thousand people were killed in a 26 year long war between tamil separatists and the government. both sides are accused of crimes including murder and torture. now, the u.n. says minority groups are facing his termination. this protest in february was a rare combined march of muslims and tamils with a long list of complaints. sri lanka's government rejects all the allegations made in the report, including claims it uses divisive rhetoric. >> the constitution guarantees us fundamental rights and anyone can canvass under the fundamental rights.

sri lanka in the last few years has realized today we have all of our programs, economics, social, other beneficial programs, all are equally enjoyed and implemented from the north to the south. >> his son was taken away by the military at the end of the war. she has no idea what happened but is convinced he is still alive. her story is the same for thousands of other families. >> what we see now is they are trying to make us fed up and stop the protest, so we can't trust them. we have to go to the international community to get our children back because we realize there's no point going to the government. reporter: the un's high commission has urged member states to consider prosecuting alleged crimes to try to get answers from the thousands of people like her.

mohammed: the un's as the 20th amendment to the sri lanka constitution has further eroded human rights. so what has changed? parliament overwhelmingly approved giving the president more power, but he can remove any minister, improve -- including the prime minister and can dissolve parliament a year after election. the prosecution has full immunity and can appoint the heads of the electoral and human rights commissions. let's bring in our guests -- from colombo, a political analyst and chief executive from the center for policy alternatives. in beijing, the sri lanka ambassador to china. and in london, a human rights lawyer. thank you for joining us. the u.n. human rights commissioner said on wednesday

that 12 years after the end of armed conflict in sri lanka, domestic efforts to ensure for the victims -- what is your response to that? >> -- guest: i have a number of comments. i think a very senior u.n. official and former president has misunderstood her role. i do not think as a senior official at the u.n. that it is a job for the high commissioner to tar and feather companies -- countries. her job is to make the world a better place, not to go around and find countries and making suggestions and what is most

important, that she faces herself over and over again and that she makes a baseless assertion on innuendo and suggestion. her role is to assist countries to improve their performance and not just sri lanka, but other countries. there are many countries including in the west which neither human rights performance improved. i have a lot of problems with what she has to say. mohammed: the high commissioner accused sri lanka of reneging on promises to ensure justice for thousands of civilians killed in the final stages of the 37 year separatist war that ended in 2009. do you agree with that assessment? guest: i completely agree. we have seen a really worrying trajectory in sri lanka which i

think was just pointed to. there is a real recurrence and risk of violence and cycles of violence and this points to the fact that sri lanka has failed to address the root causes of its ethnic conflict. over the last few years, there has been a ramping up of militarization and an increase in attacks on human rights offenders and victims rights communities. this past saturday marked four years since families disappeared across the northeast and began protesting, looking for answers and justice around loved ones who had been disappearing. many of whom disappeared during that final phase of the armed conflict. it symbolizes the fact that sri lanka is a country that has encouraged impunity rather than dealing with issues in its past and pushing for accountability so that we don't see a recurrence of violence. mohammed: how concerned are you

about what is going on in sri lanka? is the country at a tipping point? guest: very definitely. i think the danger at the moment is the consolidation of this culture of impunity and increased militarization as far as government and governance is concerned. if nothing is done about it, we are going to be in bad shape indeed. we have a culture of impunity almost to the system of governance. as far as accountability, what needs to be understood is at the end of the day, we are members of an international community and we members have certain obligations and certain responsibilities. we cannot cherry pick those we are going to fill or not.

we are definitely at a tipping point. mohammed: several countries, including the u.k. and germany submitted a draft resolution for consideration by the unh rc which expresses concern over what it calls warning signs of a deteriorating human rights situation in sri lanka. what do you say to that? guest: i don't think the high commissioner is well-informed. for anyone to go to colombo today, i don't know if they will find this deteriorating situation. the communities are very well integrated and intermixed. the vast majority of the tamil population who i assume they are talking about lives not in the so-called homelands. 54% of them in fact. if the situation were deteriorating, they would be fleeing to the north and east.

they are not. the exact opposite is true. they are coming in their thousands to live in the south because that is where the job opportunities are. and because the rest of the community welcomes them. i don't think there is a tipping point. it is a myth that has been propagating by self-serving political entities. it is very unlikely because the tipping point in 2006, 2008 when they drew the north end east and were carrying on a massive campaign of terrorism. there civilians would be bombed at random. it is not happening anymore.

where is this tipping point? i don't think there is a tipping point. this question about thousands of civilians -- has anyone done account? where are the civilians who apparently died or were killed in the last days of this conflict? nobody has ever found them. nobody has found the bombs. where are they? mohammed: let me ask you about this draft resolution that has been submitted. do you believe ultimately it will pass and, if so, what happens next? guest: i think there is a reasonable chance that what happens next is entirely up to the member states, as we all know. the human rights council, whatever it doesit can only make recommendations. it cannot mandate states to do x or y. the high commissioner, travel

sanctions come freezing of assets, she is urged countries to consider the restrictions. the last one in the short term, because of the rational chinese leader, it has to go through skilled counsel. but nevertheless, i think there are steps that can be taken in fulfillment of this resolution and the recommendations. and indeed, the pressure needs to be kept on the government of sri lanka to meaningfully engage in reconciliation. in 2009, we entered into a postwar phase. we are still in that postwar phase. we are not in a post-conflict phase. mohammed: based on your

observations, is there a chance we could see a reoccurrence of violence? are you worried about that being a possibly going forward? guest: definitely, and i can tie it into the resolution and send -- sentiments on the island. we saw this march between the tamil and muslim communities. from a eastern point on the island to a northern point on the island and it attracted, some estimates put it at 50,000 individuals. it talked about the number of issues these communities are facing from forced cremation to increased militarization to a lack of accountability for these heinous atrocity crimes that occurred during the end of the war and despite the governments assertions are incredibly well documented, both by you and entities and other

organizations. there is a real concern that if there are not checks and balances put in place and if this continues that nationalism that in a way underpins the government and continues unchecked, we will see a real risk of occurrence of violence. myanmar is an unfortunate lesson in how unchecked military power can lead to problematic breakdowns in the rule of law. mohammed: last year, sri lanka pulled out of it when he 15 resolution calling for accountability for alleged excesses carried out by sri lankan troops and reparations for victims. what was the justification for doing so? guest: two important justifications. one is some of the commitments made were not consistent with the constitution of sri lanka.

in fact, there had been suggestions made that those who cosponsored it should be hauled up before the courts for acting contrary to the constitution. second, there was a massive sentiment in the country against that resolution. in a democracy, any government will have to respond to public pressure. the current government was elected with a two thirds majority and one of the key plans which went to the electorate was the resolution of 2015. the electorate expressed itself in no uncertain terms about what it felt and we've got two very good reasons for withdrawing

from that cosponsorship. as you know very well, around the world, in democracies, countries have not complied or gone ahead with commitments to comply with international obligations. they are confronted by domestic opposition. the united states is a classic example. in the circumstances, there was no option but to withdraw its signature. having said that, has the government not taken adequate measures to comply with whatever it agreed to? it has and there are other things it continues to do. tracing missing persons. it is not complete and i don't think you can trace all the missing persons in a conflict in the space of 10 years.

there are people still missing after the second world war or vietnam war. why should sri lan, a developing country with limited resources be pushed and told to find for everybody. in the case of some missing persons, they have discovered certain western countries -- recently, and individual was tried before the court of law in germany and was listed as missing. there is a lot of propaganda involved, a lot of pressure exerted byntities who have a stake in this and, for them, this has become a game. who's going to win at the end of the day? who can put more pressure?

mohammed: i'm sorry to interrupt, but we are starting to run out of time. it looked to me as if someone wanted to jump in. guest: it is ridiculous to dismiss the calls of families of the disappeared across the island who have loved ones who were taken and disappeared by perpetrators who were primarily the sri lankan state. this allegation that they are in the de asper a and recorded as missing does not line up with the facts. sri lanka continues to remain the country with the highest -- second highest number of complaints with the u.n. working group on arbitrary detention. a lot of women protesting on the roads spent years after the war ended going from military camp to police station in groups to protect themselves from being potentially disappeared or sexually assaulted.

looking for disappeared children, their husbands, their wives and to the question of where these individuals are, if the government is so confident that they are not afraid of handling, why try so hard to suppress the voices of the families of the disappeared? a mother i spoke to last week said she was being visited multiple times a day by intelligence officers and that is true of women who lead these protests across the north and east. police are taking out court orders to prevent them from protesting while the military continues to have parades in the south and we are told these so-called court orders are because of covid. it is such a shame the government fails to recognize the pain and suffering and it takes such a psychological toll on the family members of the victim. to not address these issues and the fact the government and its

representatives are still today denying the very fact of those disappearance and the importance of addressing them is the perfect example of the government's attitude toward its subnational populations. it again reiterates the need for international intervention. mohammed: i want to ask you about this 20th constitutional moment. many groups have expressed concerns about the independence of the judiciary, that they have been significantly weakened by this constitutional amendment. what have the ramifications been throughout the country? guest: effectively, the amendment has removed any checks or balances on the exercise of power by the elected president. at least it vetted the various appointment to state institutions as well as judges,

etc.. there is a parliamentary counsel which will give their observations and getting their observations in itself is not mandatory. what we have here is the consolidation and centralization of power in the office of one person for the whole question of the institution. mohammed: what do you say to critics of this 20th constitutional amendment? guest: first and foremost, the 19th amendment, which the 20th sought to replace was not the most popular amendment in the country. this was abundantly clear in the way the electorate voted.

a government that has had a mandate to make these changes has to respond to that mandate and deliver on that mandate. i don't think it is now appropriate to say the government did the wrong thing. the government went to the electorate with certain promises and it has delivered on them. one more point i need to raise -- the ridiculousness is not about the government denying the existence of disappearance. it is about making this allegation over and over again without any substantiation. you could stir up the population, you could stir up certain segments of the population to march up and down the streets. it is not a difficult thing in the modern era.

you can do that and it is being done over and over again in sri lanka. let me finish on this point. to say of course i cry for those mothers who have lost their loved ones. for the sisters who lost their brothers, for the fathers who lost their sons and daughters. i cry for them. but to keep making this allegation without any cone create substantiation reeks of propaganda and political grandstanding. mohammed: i want to ask you about the chilling effect this has had on civil society. guest: it has had an arm's chilling effect. the ministry of defense who is

named in several reports as having committed war crimes. a number of organizations across the north and east and across the island have self censored to make sure they can survive this regime. that includes family of the disappeared who despite the governments efforts continue to protest on the roads because what they want is to be reunited with their loved ones or know what happened to them. mohammed: we have run out of time. thank you to all of our guests. and thank you for watching. you can watch this and our previous programs by visiting our website and for further discussion, go to our facebook page. you can join the conversation on twitter. for the whole team here, goodbye for now.

ç■ç?nk woman: dia de los muertos, for me, is something that is very much l.a. different woman: it was revived by the artist community in the early seventies in los angeles through self help graphics, and so the chicana/chicano artists really had a lot to do with the shaping of what day of the dead looked like here, you know, in california and also throughout the southwest. different woman: as people migrated to united states, they brought this holiday with them.