Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the accuracy of allegations that war crimes were committed during the Sri Lankan civil war by (a) Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva and (b) other high-level members of the Sri Lankan Government.

The UK has long supported Sri Lanka's accountability commitments made to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) through resolutions 30/1, 34/1 and 40/1 as the best way to establish truth regarding alleged crimes committed by all sides during the Sri Lankan civil war, as well as to achieve accountability and reconciliation.

In August 2019, the British High Commission in Colombo issued a joint statement alongside other European partners to express concern about the appointment of Lieutenant-General Shavendra Silva as Commander of the Sri Lankan Army due to the allegations of grave human rights and humanitarian law violations against him.

We continue to underline the importance of accountability, justice and reconciliation in our engagement with the Government of Sri Lanka, including through the statement of the Core Group on Sri Lanka at the UNHRC in Geneva on 27 February. The Minister for South Asia Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon underlined the importance of these issues when he met the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, Dinesh Gunawardena, in Geneva on 25 February.