The Sri Lankan government intimidates the press and is unlikely to respect human rights anytime soon, New York-based Human Rights Watch also said in its annual report, released Monday.Sri Lankan troops defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009, ending a 26-year insurgency. Between 80,000 and 100,000 people were killed in the violence and, according to UN documents, more than 7,000 civilians died in the last five months of the conflict.Since the end of the war, human rights groups have repeatedly called for an investigation into allegations that government troops shelled civilians and hospitals, blocked the delivery of food and medical supplies, and deliberately underestimated the number of civilians trapped in the war zone.They also have called for investigations into allegations that the rebels recruited children as fighters, held civilians as human shields and killed those who tried to escape their territory.“Sri Lanka’s aggressive rejection of accountability for war crimes is an affront to the victims of the country’s long civil war,” Elaine Pearson, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Asia director, said in the report.“The government undermines its claims of clean hands in the fighting with its repressive measures against the media and civil society,” she said.Government officials could not be reached for comment, but have in the past denied committing rights abuses and suppressing the media.With widespread calls for investigations, the government appointed the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) last year. But leading international rights groups refused to testify before it, saying the commission had a pro-government bias with no mandate to investigate abuses.“The government commission includes officials who publicly defended the government’s conduct of the war,” Pearson said. “This panel should be seen for what it is: a cynical attempt to whitewash the truth.” Last June, UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon appointed a three-member panel to advise him as to whether an internationally backed investigation was needed.The government initially rejected the panel as a breach of its sovereignty but later said it would allow its members to visit the country to testify before the LLRC, but not for an investigation.The government has also silenced the media, civil leaders and the opposition, and the press is reluctant to publish articles critical of President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government, the Human Rights Watch report said.“There is no reason to believe that Sri Lanka will return to a rights-respecting government any time in the near future,” Pearson said. “Until wartime abuses are prosecuted, minority grievances are addressed, and repression against the press and civil society ends, only the president and his family members in power have reason to feel secure in Sri Lanka.”