Protests at UN office in Sri Lanka over war panel

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Protesters led by a Sri Lankan minister around the UN office in Colombo on Tuesday and held the staff under fire to protest against a UN panel set up to try war crimes probe allegations.
Housing Secretary Wimal Weerawansa said the anti-UN slogans like crowds broke through police barricades and gathered at the entrance of the building and prevented the staff leaving the compound for seven hours, witnesses said.
Police moved in and lifted the siege and a spokesman said Weerawansa five of their supporters were injured in a confrontation with anti-riot police units.
Rowdy crowd remained outside, even after police removed the barriers at the entrance of the UN compound. By evening, the demonstrators carried a "thovil," or a devil to dance, to "exorcise evil spirits".
"We will not leave. We will sit down and protest to the Secretary-General draws the panel," Weerawansa told about 1,500 cheering supporters earlier in the day.
They are burnt an effigy of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and carried banners that accused him of being a puppet of the United States.
Sri Lanka has refused to cooperate with the panel, which was appointed by Ban last month to advise on "accountability issues" during the war between government forces and Tamil Tiger separatists.
The government has also refused to issue visas to the three members of the panel, which means they are unable to visit the island.
The Tiger guerrillas were defeated in May 2009 after decades of conflict, and the UN has said that at least 7000 ethnic Tamil civilians were slain in the first four months of last year.
Many diplomats see the UN panel, led by Marzuki Darusman, a former Indonesian attorney-general, as a precursor to a full-blown war crimes investigation.
Neither the UN office in Colombo, nor the government responded to protests on Tuesday.
President Mahinda Rajapakse has repeatedly rejected international calls for war crimes allegations to investigate.
Sri Lanka has to turn away from a UN resolution last year with the help of Russia and China, key allies and arms suppliers to the island.
Ban has asked his three-member panel to complete its work within four months.