Sri Lanka's Human Rights Minister, Mahinda Samarasinghe, on Saturday rejected charges by the U.N.'s human rights chief that both sides in the civil war are responsible for the deaths of up to 2,800 civilians since January, many of them inside no-fire zones.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said Friday that Sri Lanka's military has repeatedly shelled safe zones. She also accused rebels of holding civilians as human shields.
Samarasinghe called the charges "unsubstantiated" and denied the government had shelled civilian safe zones.
