The British High Commission in Colombo has announced that the UK and Sri Lanka have conducted a joint disaster relief exercise despite concerns raised over human rights abuses committed by Sri Lanka’s army.
The news follows earlier reports that Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) had conducted training with Sri Lankan troops in Trincomalee in two weeks ago.
Read more here: Britain’s RAF train Sri Lankan air force in Trincomalee
Sri Lanka’s military stands accused of grotesque human rights violations which ramped up during the final stage of the war where tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were murdered. Hospitals saw routine shelling, there are allegations of widespread sexual violence and torturem as well as the execution of surrendering Tamils. To this day, no one has been held accountable for these crimes.
On Twitter the British High Commission posted;
The #UK and #SriLanka officials and military personnel conducted a joint #disaster relief exercise this week. The event brought together experts from both countries to explore the challenges of building #resilience to natural disasters in a realistic scenario
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