UK says human rights must be part of conversation in providing assistance to SL

• Lord Ahmad says human rights must be discussed to ensure past issues during the war and targeting of communities are not forgotten 
• Claims UK’s focus is on current IMF package and how it would ensure economic prosperity for the country 
• Notes UK Govt. very much focused to ensure important elements of reconciliation and justice
• Says UK attempting to form alliances and partnerships to help SL overcome its indebtedness to China

Lord Tariq Ahmad

Lord Moylan​

UK Minister of State for the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and the UN at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Lord Tariq Ahmad this week said human rights must be part of the conversation relating to offering assistance to Sri Lanka. 

He said this is important to ensure that the issues that arose from the previous civil war and the targeting of particular communities are not forgotten. He also noted that while economic empowerment of communities is a way to build a country, the UK’s focus has been on the current IMF package and how that should act as a lever to ensure economic prosperity for Sri Lanka. 

Lord Ahmad was responding to an oral question posed by Lord Moylan at the House of Lords session held yesterday on what direct assistance will the UK provide for the reconciliation efforts in Sri Lanka and the establishment of the truth commission. 

“The UK Government stands alongside our partners and has worked in the human rights council core group on Sri Lanka which has led to international efforts over many years to promote accountability, reconciliation, and human rights in Sri Lanka, including most recently implementing the UN human rights council resolution 51/1. 

“The resolution renewed the mandate of the office of the high commissioner for human rights to report on Sri Lanka and to protect and preserve evidence of past human rights abuses to use in future accountability processes,” Lord Ahmad said. 

Joining in the discussion, Lord Naseby questioned if the UK Government should now persuade the United Nations to remove the 20-year restriction on the source of the evidence in the Darusman report of 2011, which stated that up to 40,000 people were killed. 

“Secondly, the UK Government themselves should surely now release to any commission the unreacted dispatches from the UK’s respected and experienced military attaché, Colonel Gash, who was on the battlefield every day from 1 January to 18 May 2009, proving beyond doubt in his dispatches that there was no genocide,” he said. 

Ahmad said he cannot agree with the comments put forward by Naseby as the truth and reconciliation commission was set up in 2015 as there was a real recognition, even by the Sri Lankan Government of that time, of the importance of bringing communities together to ensure that atrocities could be fully investigated and perpetrators could be held to account. 

“That is why we have pursued the issue at the UN Human Rights Council, which is the right approach. Of course, in time, there is a need for domestic mechanisms, but the sad truth is that, since 2015, despite successive changes of Government, we have seen little progress with the truth and justice commission in Sri Lanka,” he said. 

In response noting Sri Lanka was to mark its 75th year since independence Lord Moylan questioned if the UK Government will consider working with Sri Lanka to invest in a large landmark development scheme for the country that would help add resilience in the future against an economic crisis.

“Notwithstanding the continuing prioritisation we’re giving to human rights and that has to remain part of that conversation and discussion to ensure that the issues that arose from the previous civil war particularly and the targeting of particular communities is not forgotten and that’s why remain resolute in what we’re doing at the HRC. 

“But I take on board the specific element of economic empowerment of communities as a way to build a country. Our focus has also been on the current IMF package and how that should act as a lever to ensure economic prosperity for communities across Sri Lanka,” he said. 

Ahmad said the UK Government is very much focused to ensure the important elements of reconciliation and justice in Sri Lanka. He said the UK is working closely with various agencies on the issue of the humanitarian situation as well.

Commenting on Sri Lanka’s massive debt load to China, Lord Ahmad said while Sri Lanka will owe long indebtedness to the country, the UK is also looking to see how it can form alliances and partnerships to overcome that. 

“But the IMF rescheduling off the debt is the first step to that,” he said. 

According to him, while the Commonwealth has a part to play in Sri Lanka’s recovery, he said the UK Government is pleased India has come forward and also given certain credit lines to Sri Lanka as well as on issues of energy. He also highlighted the importance of bringing communities together to ensure that past atrocities could be fully investigated and more importantly perpetrators brought to account.  

“That is why we’ve been pursuing the issue at the UN Human Rights Council, I think that’s the right approach,” he opined.