Cameron assures India he will raise human rights violation issue with Sri Lanka

Friday, 15 November 2013 05:48 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: During his visit to New Delhi, British Prime Minister David Cameron defended his decision to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka and said it will help him raising human rights violation issues with the country. Even though pressure mounted for a boycott of the meet over alleged human rights abuses by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his Government, Cameron rejected boycott calls. Cameron said that he was the first Prime Minister of any country who will be visiting the northern province of Sri Lanka, the scene of the Government’s war against Tamil Tiger rebels that ended in 2009.

He said that this would facilitate a better assessment of the situation there. “Of course, there is always a case for not going somewhere. But I think actually we will get further by going and having conversations with the Sri Lankans about what needs to happen and shining a light on some of the issues and the problems that are there. And because I am going to the north of the country, I will be taking journalists with me,” said Cameron. Cameron is also holding trade talks with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh, who decided to skip the commonwealth summit. Singh is joined by the Prime Ministers of Canada and Mauritius, who are avoiding the meet to protest the alleged involvement of the Rajapaksa regime in the war crimes. Shine a light Cameron said that he supported the decision of India and Canada but had a different ideology as he thinks it would be better if he goes there and ‘shines a light’ on the problems prevalent in Sri Lanka. “India, Canada, Britain; We all have the same approach to Sri Lanka, which is that we want to see greater efforts of reconciliation, we want to see better efforts on human rights, we want to see proper enquiries into what happened at the end of that dreadful civil war. So, there is a lot of difference in the policy,” said Cameron. The Sri Lankan Government, which defeated separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009, is under increasing pressure from the international community to try those responsible for rights abuses during the nearly three-decade-long conflict. Groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have called on the 53 Commonwealth heads of government, which include Britain and its former colonies, not to attend, or to send a low-level delegation, to the Indian Ocean Island. As many as 40,000 civilians were killed in the last months of the conflict, as Government troops advanced on the last stronghold of the rebels fighting for an independent homeland, a United Nations (UN) panel said in 2011. Cons weigh more than pros Meanwhile, Cameron said that on a brighter side, the condition of Tamils in Sri Lanka was improving but added that the cons weighed more than the pros. “It is a tough message; it shouldn’t be a completely uncompromising message. There are some positive steps that have been taken in Sri Lanka. The fact that they had elections towards a northern provincial council, the fact that there is a process of reconciliation is just not going as far as we will like it to go. So, on the ledger there are some things on the positive side but there are too many things on the negative side,” said the British Prime Minister. Earlier on Wednesday (13 November), around 100 protesters blocked the train in which a UK TV crew was travelling, trying to get to the north of Sri Lanka.