Rights Body Passes Measure on Sri Lanka GENEVA - A U.S. initiative calling the Sri Lankan government to account for the loss of civilian life at the end of its civil war three years ago has won support from a clear majority of the U.N. Human Rights Council in the face of an exhaustive government campaign to block it. The 47 members of the Council, which is based in Geneva, voted 24 to 15, with 8 abstentions, in favor of a resolution urging Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations of the commission it had appointed to investigate events at the end of its civil war in 2009 and to start a credible process of accounting for the heavy loss of life that occurred. A U.N. panel reported last year that as many as 40,000 people might have died in the closing stages of the 26-year war against Tamil Tiger separatists, many as a result of government shelling of areas crowded with civilians. The panel said it had found credible evidence that both sides in the conflict committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. The resolution will keep the issue on the Council's agenda by requiring the U.N. high commissioner for human rights to report back in one year on the action taken to follow up on these recommendations. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement that the international community had "sent a strong signal that Sri Lanka will only achieve lasting peace through real reconciliation and accountability." Russia, China and Cuba, joined by a number of Asian states, criticized the resolution as unwarranted interference in Sri Lankan affairs, but in a notable departure from its previous voting record in the Council, India gave its support. Sri Lanka's special envoy on human rights, Mahinda Samarasinghe, condemned the resolution. Members of Sri Lanka's delegation were also dismissive of the result. "It won't change anything; we will just forge ahead as planned," said Mohan Peiris, chief legal adviser to Sri Lanka's cabinet and a former attorney general. Sri Lanka has always engaged with the Human Rights Council, he said, but "we don't want anything forced down our throat; there must be mutual respect." Human rights groups say the outcome represents a stinging reversal for President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government, which won an endorsement from the Human Rights Council when it addressed a special session soon after the end of the war in May 2009 and lobbied exhaustively to block the Thursday resolution. "It's a clear message that the L.L.R.C. has not addressed accountability, and that is what the international community wants from Sri Lanka," said Julie de Rivero, advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, referring to the government's Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission. For a government that's been in denial on civilian casualties for three years, that's an important message. Mr. Peiris dismissed as "absolute rubbish" allegations raised by Belgium in the debate Thursday that the government had engaged in intimidation and reprisals against Sri Lanka's civil society both at home and in Geneva.