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William Hague Believes Sri Lanka War Crimes Inquiry By March
BBC NEWS, UK
November 17 2013: UK Foreign Secretary William Hague has said he believes it is possible for the Sri Lankan government to establish a war crimes inquiry before March. It comes after PM David Cameron called on president Mahinda Rajapaksa to set up an independent inquiry into alleged war crimes - or face a UN probe. Sri Lanka's government has rejected Mr Cameron's call for an international probe.
Mr Hague said that Britain would be pursuing the issue. He made the comments to the Colombo-based Sunday Times while attending the Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka. Mr Hague told the paper that it was possible for the Sri Lankan government to establish an inquiry before next March "to start and show the world they are doing that". "That would make a big difference," he said.
'Glass houses'
Sri Lanka faces continued allegations over the rape and torture of detainees, enforced disappearances of activists and the intimidation of journalists. The abuses are alleged to have been committed mainly against Tamils since the end of the war in 2009. The Sri Lankan government has vehemently denied all such accusations.
Mr Cameron met Mr Rajapaksa after a visit to the northern Jaffna region to see the situation facing the country's Tamil minority ahead of the summit. BBC political editor Nick Robinson said the prime minister had said he would push the UN to set up an independent inquiry at the next meeting of its human rights council in March.
Charles Haviland, BBC correspondent for Sri Lanka and the Maldives, said the summit, aimed at showing off the island's post-war economic recovery, has been dominated by a row with Britain over human rights and war crimes allegations.
Mr Rajapaksa has reacted defiantly to the UK's call for an inquiry into alleged human rights abuses, saying "people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones". Pro-government commentators have pointed to alleged abuses under British colonial rule to suggest Britain has no moral right to criticize Sri Lanka.
Mr Rajapaksa made an oblique reference to Bloody Sunday, when 13 civilians were shot dead in Northern Ireland by the British army in 1972.
In May 2009 Sri Lanka's army defeated the separatist Tamil Tigers after almost 30 years of brutal and bloody civil war. But the spotlight has focused on the final phase of that war as civilians were hemmed into a thin strip of land on the northeastern coast - both sides are accused of atrocities here.
However, one UN report estimates that as many as 40,000 civilians were killed in that final phase, mostly by government shelling.
