Expressing support for internal rebuilding, resettlement, and reconciliation within Sri Lanka that are necessary to ensure a lasting peace.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to honor the three year anniversary of the end of the 26-year-long civil war in Sri Lanka.

Although this war ended three years ago, and a United Nations panel of experts found evidence of war crimes and the Government-established Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission called for an inquiry into the events surrounding February 21, 2002 to May 19, 2009, a credible plan of action has yet to be determined.

Evidence of child soldiers, the killing of captives and combatants seeking to surrender, large-scale shelling of ``No Fire Zones,'' and the rape and torture of civilians fleeing the conflict zone are extremely serious. Serious crimes such as these--committed against civilians on such a large scale during war--must be investigated and those responsible held accountable. Accountability is important for the benefit of the victims and their families--for the trust necessary for reconciliation in Sri Lanka to be established and for the entire structure of the rules of war on which our soldiers and all innocent civilians depend.

A resolution recently adopted in March by the United Nations Human Rights Commission ``calls upon the Government of Sri Lanka to implement the constructive recommendations made in the report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission and to take all necessary additional a steps to fulfill its relevant legal obligations and commitment to initiate credible and independent actions to ensure justice, equity, accountability and reconciliation for all Sri Lankans.'' Furthermore the UNHRC Resolution ``requests the Government of Sri Lanka to present, as expeditiously as possible, a comprehensive action plan detailing the steps that the Government has taken and will take to implement the recommendations made in the Commission's report, and also to address alleged violations of international law.''

Mr. Speaker, the government of Sri Lanka needs to take concrete action that brings accountability and reconciliation and puts forth an implementation plan if the people of Sri Lanka are to move forward.

I urge all of my colleagues to join me and co-sponsor House Resolution 177 commending the international community in pressuring the government of Sri Lanka to acknowledge their crimes against humanity and to move forward with a reconciliation process.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remember the third anniversary of the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka.

Although the war ended on May 19, 2009, 90,000 Tamil war widows in the north and east continue to struggle to resume their lives without their husbands.

Many have not been able to return to their original homes and must cope with disabilities, both their own and their children's, caused by shelling and the lack of medicine and intentional starvation at the end of the war.

They have returned to a devastated land in which there is little remaining infrastructure and few jobs and which is occupied by a military force whose soldiers do not speak their language.

Making a return to normal life even more difficult is the lack of accountability for their husbands' deaths and the horrors these women and their children underwent at the end of the war, including physical, sexual, and gender-based violence.

Sri Lanka's Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission did not adequately deal with accountability by its armed forces.

At its March, 2012 session, the U.N. Human Rights Council called on Sri Lanka to ``take all necessary additional steps to fulfill its relevant legal obligations and commitment to initiate credible and independent actions to ensure justice, equity, accountability and reconciliation for all Sri Lankans.''

If Sri Lanka does not take up this task immediately, there must be international action to provide accountability.

This is why, Mr. Speaker, I am a co-sponsor of H. Res. 177, which calls for an international investigation into what occurred in Sri Lanka at the end of its civil war.

I urge all my colleagues to support this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to remove my name as a cosponsor of House Resolution 177.