The Telegraph editorial on Thursday, entitled 'Sri Lanka's tragedy', called on British Prime Minister David Cameron to ensure Sri Lanka holds an 'independent and international inquiry' into the fate of the thousands of disappeared people.
Sri Lanka has the second highest number of 'disappeared' people in the world according to the UN, behind only Iraq.
Speaking on the upcoming CHOGM, the piece went on to say Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is 'deeply compromised' and it was 'never sensible' to allow Sri Lanka to host the event, yet it also added that a British boycott would not 'be wise'.
Extracts from the editorial have been reproduced below. See the full piece here.
"No fewer than 5,676 names appear on a United Nations list: more than in Argentina after the “dirty war” of the Seventies, or in Colombia after decades of abductions by drug barons and Marxist insurgents.""Instead, the Prime Minister should use his visit to made one categorical demand: that the Sri Lankan government must allow a UN investigation into the fate of the disappeared."
"Mr Rajapaksa has set up his own commission, but no government can be trusted to investigate itself. The relatives of the missing deserve an independent and international inquiry, empowered to discover the fate of each outstanding case. How could anyone oppose this? Mr Cameron should seize the opportunity to make this reasonable and realistic demand."
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