Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Hugo Swire in reply to a question by MP Stephen Timms in the House of commons on 27 Jan stated that “… any domestic process should be credible, independent and transparent to be accepted by the international community. We do not believe that any of the processes established to date by the Sri Lankan Government—such as the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission—meet these standards.”
Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the answer of 16 January 2014, Official Report, columns 607-08W, on Sri Lanka, what recent assessment he has made of the likelihood of a credible domestic process beginning by March 2014.
Mr Swire: In her September 2013 oral statement to the UN Human Rights Council, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said she had ‘detected no new or comprehensive efforts to investigate’ alleged war crimes during her visit to Sri Lanka. At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo in November, the Prime Minister, subsequently made clear to President Rajapaksa that unless a credible national accountability process has begun properly by March 2014, we will use our position on the UN Human Rights Council to call for an international investigation. We have also highlighted that any domestic process should be credible, independent and transparent to be accepted by the international community. We do not believe that any of the processes established to date by the Sri Lankan Government—such as the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission—meet these standards. If a genuine and credible process has begun properly by March 2014, we would give it our full support.
ES