British Foreign Office Minister Mark Simmonds has said that the UK is “disappointed” Sri Lanka chose not to endorse a British initiative to tackle sexual violence in conflict.
Talking to the Tamil Guardian at the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, which is currently under way in London, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs said,
“We have an interesting relationship with the Sri Lankan government because we are pushing the international community to have an exploratory investigation into some of the allegations of human rights abuses that took place during the conflict... So we very much hope that the Sri Lankan government will engage with this important agenda in the fullness of time.”Commenting on Sri Lanka's decision not to endorse or sign the “Declaration of Prevention of Sexual Violence in Conflict”, the Minister added,
“What we find quite disappointing about Sri Lanka is that the other people who have not signed up to it are... the Syrians, the Zimbabweans... it is those who are not normally part of the international community, the North Koreans.. and we don't want Sri Lanka to be a part of that.”