...it`s time the appalling and chilling events in his country are investigated."Colombo/Jaffna, Sri Lanka (ANTARA News/Reuters) - Leaders of the Commonwealth of mostly former British colonies gathered in Colombo on Friday for a biennial summit that has brought with it intense scrutiny of Sri Lankas human rights record four years after the civil war ended.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa had hoped the Nov. 15-17 meeting, which two heads of state have boycotted, would prove an advertisement for progress and economic growth in the island state of 21 million off Indias southern tip.
Instead the build-up to the summit has been overshadowed allegations of state-sponsored rape and torture, and political pressure, including from British Prime Minister David Cameron who has vowed to press Sri Lanka on its human rights record.
"I will be clear with the Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa: its time the appalling and chilling events in his country are investigated," Cameron wrote on Twitter.
Opening the summit, Rajapaksa defended the governments record, after saying this week it had "nothing to hide".
"We in Sri Lanka are stepping into a new era of peace, stability and premium economic opportunities," he told heads of state and officials from 49 countries. "In ending terrorism in 2009 we asserted the greatest human right, the right to live."
Separatist Tamil rebels battled government forces for 26 years until an army offensive crushed them in 2009.
A U.N. panel has said around 40,000 mainly Tamil civilians died in the final months of the offensive. Both sides committed atrocities but army shelling killed most victims, it concluded.
The United Nations wants an international inquiry into allegations of war crimes in the final months of the conflict.
(U.H-RN)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2013
