Sri Lanka

Lord Singh of Wimbledon Excerpts

Wednesday 26th February 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Warsi]

I thank my noble friend for his support. It would be wrong for me to predict at this stage how the voting will turn out. My right honourable friend the Minister, Hugo Swire, plans to be at the Human Rights Council high-level session on Monday. We have been working with a number of countries that have indicated strong support for the resolution, but it would be wrong for me to predict at this stage what the outcome of the vote will be. We continue to work incredibly hard to make sure that we get the resolution.

[Lord Singh of Wimbledon (CB)]

My Lords, I, too, congratulate the Government on their single-minded pursuit of an international inquiry into the allegations of human rights abuse in Sri Lanka. In view of the recent disclosures about Mrs Thatcher’s Government giving support in 1984 to the Indian Government in their ruthless suppression of Sikhs, will the present Government make amends by backing growing calls, in India, here and other parts of the world, for a similar UN-backed international inquiry into the Indian Government-backed massacre of Sikhs in 1984? It is not generally known in this House or outside that in only three days more Sikhs were killed in India than the total number of those who were killed or disappeared in the 17 years of General Pinochet’s rule.

[Baroness Warsi]

The noble Lord’s question goes slightly beyond the remit of this Question. I spent an hour and a half with the noble Lord and members of the community yesterday discussing exactly this issue and what follow-up work could be done post that report. I will, of course, write to him in due course as a follow-up to that discussion.