The UN has questioned the credibility of any probe carried out by a Sri Lankan-government appointed panel into alleged human rights violations in the last phase of the war with the LTTE.

On Monday it was announced that President Mahinda Rajapaksa had decided to appoint an independent committee to look into the report of compiled by the US Department of State alleging that Sri Lanka has violated human rights.

The report alleged that at least 170 instances of human rights violations had been committed by both the army as well as the Tamil Tigers.

UN Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Philip Alston said the Sri Lankan government has an issue with credibility and raised doubts over the outcome of a probe on human rights to be carried out by a panel appointed by the government.

The Daily Mirror website reported that in response to a question on “self-investigations”, he said that military investigations of allegations against their own activities did not enhance credibility.