Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Thursday 16th June 2011 Ministerial Corrections

Topical Questions

The following is the answer given by the Minister for South Asia, the hon. Member for North East Bedfordshire (Alistair Burt), to a question from the hon. Member for East Lothian (Fiona O'Donnell) during Foreign and Commonwealth Office Question Time on 14 June 2011.

[Fiona O'Donnell (East Lothian) (Lab)]

Ahead of Channel 4’s screening this evening of “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields”, what recent assessment have the Secretary of State or Ministers made of the credibility of the Sri Lankan Government’s lessons learned and reconciliation commission and its new deadline to report in November this year?

[Alistair Burt]

I spoke this morning to the Foreign Secretary of Sri Lanka, who had the opportunity to update me on some positive measures that were being taken in relation to Jaffna. I was in a position to remind him of the importance of having a credible and independent investigation of the various allegations that are now very much on the table from the United Nations and others. It is essential that those are dealt with. We note the new timetable for the LLRC to report in November, but, however long this takes, it will not be possible for Sri Lanka to move forward unless it has addressed some of the horrors of the past.

[Official Report, 14 June 2011, Vol. 529, c. 633-34.]

Letter of correction from Alistair Burt:

An error has been identified in an oral answer given on 14 June 2011. The correct answer should have been:

[Alistair Burt]

I spoke this morning to the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, who had the opportunity to update me on some positive measures that were being taken in relation to Jaffna. I was in a position to remind him of the importance of having a credible and independent investigation of the various allegations that are now very much on the table from the United Nations and others. It is essential that those are dealt with. We note the new timetable for the LLRC to report in November, but, however long this takes, it will not be possible for Sri Lanka to move forward unless it has addressed some of the horrors of the past.