Britain’s Cameron calls for rights probe in Sri Lanka

COLOMBO, SATURDAY

Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron on Saturday threatened to push for an independent international inquiry into allegations of war crimes at the climax of Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war if the island nation does not conduct its own probe by March 2014.

Cameron has been the most vocal critic of Sri Lanka’s record on rights during a biennale summit of Commonwealth nations being held in the capital Colombo. The normally sedate event has been shaken by the intensifying row over atrocities during the final months of the war and ongoing abuses ever since.

“Let me be very clear. If an investigation is not completed by March, then I will use our position on the UN Human Rights Council to work with the UN Human Rights Commission and call for a full credible and independent international inquiry,” Cameron told reporters.

March is when the UN Human Rights Commission next meets to assess Sri Lanka’s progress on addressing human rights abuses including allegations of war crimes. It was not immediately clear what form an international inquiry would take. Sri Lanka has in the past refused to allow the United Nations unfettered access to the former war zones.

The Sri Lankan army crushed Tamil Tiger separatists in the final battle of a long civil war in 2009, in a strategy partly drawn up by President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s brother, defense secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Some 300,000 civilians were trapped on a narrow beach during the onslaught and a UN panel estimates 40,000 non-combatants died. Both sides committed atrocities but army shelling killed most victims, it concluded.

Since the end of the war, harassment of government critics, including attacks on journalists and human rights workers have continued. There’s heavy army presence on the former Tiger strongholds.

— Reuters