Lord Avebury
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Sri Lanka: Presidential Elections
Lord Avebury Excerpts(9 years, 4 months ago)
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Lord Wallace of Saltaire
My Lords, I cannot say that, but I certainly hope so.
Lord Avebury (LD)
My Lords, my noble friend the Minister mentioned that President Sirisena has undertaken to conduct a domestic inquiry into the allegations of war crimes that were committed in the final stages of the conflict in 2009. Has anybody suggested to him that he should facilitate the inquiry which was launched by the United Nations Human Rights Council at a meeting last March? Will our Government encourage him to invite it to Sri Lanka and facilitate its work there?
Lord Wallace of Saltaire
My Lords, that has been the position of our Government for the past year. Of course, there are some sensitive issues of national sovereignty. The noble Lord may be aware that there are even some people in the United Kingdom who take objection to international organisations looking at human rights issues within this country.