The leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband, challenged Sri Lanka’s new president, Maithripala Sirisena, on the ongoing military presence and the plight of political prisoners.
During a meeting with Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander, Mr Sirisena and Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, Mr Miliband highlighted the “extreme importance” of the diaspora and said there was “deep unhappiness” in the Tamil community regarding the atrocities committed during the armed conflict.
The Labour leader “pressed the importance of an independent international investigation and encouraged the President to peruse all efforts to promote peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka,” a statement released by the party said.
“The Labour Party strongly believes that the UN inquiry must continue and the report should be published no later than September 2015. We will re-double our efforts to promote peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka, to defend the rights of the Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim and Christian communities alike, and to demonstrate that human rights abuses cannot be perpetrated with impunity,” the statement further said.
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