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UN ‘Torture’ report: UK expresses serious concerns
View(s):The British Government asked Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner in London to the Foreign Office this week to express its “serious concerns” about the findings of the UNHCR’s Special Rapporteur in his recent report in which he described the use of torture in Sri Lanka as “endemic”.
High Commissioner Amari Wijewardene met on Wednesday Mark Field, the U.K. Minister of State for Asia snd the Pacific who is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka in September where reference was made to the contents in the UN Special Rapporteur’s report. The Leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom told parliament on Wednesday that the government’s concerns were conveyed to High Commissioner Wijewardena by the Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific Mark Field when he met her at the Foreign Office.
The Leader of the House was responding to a request by Conservative MP Paul Scully, the newly installed chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Sri Lanka who called for a debate on government time over the human rights situation in Sri Lanka ahead of the upcoming sessions of the UNHRC later this year.
Mr. Scully said the Special Rapporteur had said in his report, among other things, that progress on Sri Lanka fulfilling the UNHRC Resolution 30/1 was slow and the use of torture endemic. In its Human Rights and Democracy Report for 2016 the British Government said that in 2017 it will continue to support and encourage Sri Lanka to make further and faster progress on human rights.
In its recent Twitter Account- “twitter.com SLHC in London”, the mission said the High Commissioner was “delighted” to meet the minister “and discuss reconciliation, trade and bilateral relations” with no mention whatsoever of the minister’s comments whereas the House of Commons issue of Hansard reported the government’s reaction to the special rapporteur’s findings and the call by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Sri Lanka for. a debate.
Meanwhile Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn late last week added his voice to the concerns expressed by the British Government to register its views following allegations of continuing torture contained in the special rapporteur’s report.
Mr Corbyn’s expressions of deep concern followed allegations made in the Johannesburg-based International Truth and Justice Project and called for a more robust foreign policy on Sri Lanka to include accountability for serious human rights violations. On Friday he went further than Minister Mark Field and referred to reports of ongoing torture of Tamils by the Sri Lanka security forces and stressed that the UK’s foreign policy on Sri Lanka should be focused on accountability, not just promoting trade and investment.
Labour Party leader Corbyn said in a statement released Friday: “I am deeply concerned about the evidence presented in this ITJP report about the ongoing torture of Tamils; it is the lack of accountability for the crimes of the past that has enabled these horrific violations to continue and we are all culpable if we don’t speak out loudly,”