Sri Lanka’s government has rejected UK PM David Cameron’s call for an
international probe into alleged human rights abuses following the
civil war.
Mr Cameron urged President Mahinda Rajapaksa to ensure an independent
inquiry, or face a UN investigation.
But senior minister Basil Rajapaksa said such a probe would
“definitely” not be allowed to take place.
The abuses are alleged to have been committed mainly against Tamils
since the end of the war in 2009.
The government is carrying out its own investigation but denies
civilians were killed in the last stages of the war when government
troops routed Tamil Tiger rebels in their last stronghold.
President Rajapaksa has said the end of the war has brought peace,
stability and the chance of greater prosperity to Sri Lanka.
Basil Rajapakse – minister of economic development and the brother of
President Rajapakse, told news agency AFP: “Why should we have an
international inquiry? We will object to it… Definitely, we are not
going to allow it.”
Mr Cameron, speaking on Friday in the capital Colombo, ahead of the
Commonwealth summit, said he had urged Sri Lanka’s president to go
further and faster over human rights issues and reconciliation.
In a meeting with President Rajapaksa, he called for Sri Lanka to
ensure “credible, transparent and independent investigations into
alleged war crimes” and said if this did not happen by March he would
press the UN Human Rights Council to hold an international inquiry.
The prime minister met Mr Rajapaksa on Friday after a visit to the
northern Jaffna region to see the situation facing the country’s Tamil
minority.
He said strong views had been expressed but the meeting with the
president had been worthwhile.
‘Right track’
Mr Cameron said: “I accept it takes time but I think what matters is
getting on the right pathway, getting on the right track, because it’s
only through generosity, through reconciling people that you can make
the most of this country.
“So, a frank meeting – of course not everything I said was accepted
but I sense that they do want to make progress on these issues and it
will help frankly by having international pressure in order to make
sure that that happens.”
Earlier, the UK leader met Sri Lankan cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan,
a Tamil who works for reconciliation in his country.
Spin bowler “Murali” backed the prime minister’s decision to travel to
Sri Lanka but said he had been misled about the situation in the
country.
Murali told journalists: “He must have been misled by other people.
People speak without going and seeing the things there. I go on and
off. I see from my eyes there is improvement.
“I can’t say the prime minister is wrong or not. He hasn’t seen the
site, he hasn’t gone and visited these places – yesterday only.”
BBC political editor Nick Robinson, in Colombo, said it was clearly a
tense and difficult meeting between the prime minister and Sri Lanka’s
president.
Meeting boycott
Earlier on Friday, Mr Cameron became the first international leader to
travel to the Tamil-dominated north of the country since Sri Lankan
independence in 1948.
At one point, the PM’s convoy was surrounded by more than 200
protesters holding pictures of loved ones who they claim were killed
by the Sri Lankan armed forces or have disappeared.
Mr Cameron said the visit – in which he also toured a temporary
refugee camp and a newspaper office whose printing presses had been
burned – had “drawn attention to the plight” of the Tamil minority in
the country.
The Tamils’ treatment at the end of the civil war in 2009 has
dominated the run-up to the the Commonwealth Heads of Government
Meeting (Chogm), taking place in Colombo.
The prime ministers of Canada, India and Mauritius are staying away
from the summit in protest over the allegations. – BBC News
