UK calls for external investigation

Saturday, 17 March 2012 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Following the broadcast of the second video on Sri Lanka conflict by Britain’s Channel 4, the UK has called for “an independent, credible and thorough investigation” into the bloody conflict and urged the United Nations Human Rights Council to pass the resolution against Sri Lanka.

Speaking after the airing of Channel 4’s documentary ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields, War Crimes Unpunished,’ the Minister for South Asia Alistair Burt has said that once again, Channel 4 has brought “important and disturbing evidence to support allegations of grave abuses” in Sri Lanka to international attention.

However, Sri Lanka insists that it will continue to protest against the resolution.

Sri Lanka Thursday rejected the Channel 4 documentary and the unauthenticated footage shown in the video as “baseless and unacceptable”.

“Since the end of the conflict, the international community has called for an independent, credible and thorough investigation into alleged war crimes on both sides of the conflict. Channel 4’s documentaries reinforce the need for that investigation,” Burt has said.

The Minister has said that he continues to believe that Sri Lanka, in accordance with the Government’s public statements, can achieve lasting peace and reconciliation.

“But this requires a full and honest acknowledgement of the past and it requires processes, in which all parties take part, to ensure justice, reconciliation and political progress,” he has noted.

“That is why the UK will urge the UN Human Rights Council to pass a resolution next week which calls on Sri Lanka to take these steps and implement the recommendations of their own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission,” Burt has said.

The United State sponsored draft resolution on Sri Lanka calls for the Sri Lankan government to expeditiously implement the recommendations made by the Lesson Learnt and Reconciliation Commission and investigate the accountability of the government during the last stages of the armed conflict with the Tamil Tiger terrorists.

(www.colombopage.com)