The UK's All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils condemned Sri Lanka's repeated refusal to cooperate with the OHCHR Investigation into Sri Lanka (OISL) and demanded that it adhere to the UN Human Rights Council resolution passed mandating the inquiry or face sanctions.
Calling on the UK government to also condemn Sri Lanka's rejection of the inquiry, the cross-party group of MPs urged the British government "to consider all actions including sanctions until the Government of Sri Lanka agrees to cooperate with OISL."
“It is completely unacceptable that after the resolution was passed in March of this year, the Sri Lankan government is still unwilling to participate in this investigation; and is finding ways to regularly prolong and avoid this," wrote the APPG for Tamils chair and Conservative MP Lee Scott, together with the group's vice chair and Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh in a statement released Friday.
Welcoming the statement made by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid al-Hussein at the opening of the Council's 27th session on Monday, the APPGT called for "for an urgent moratorium on deportation of Tamil asylum seekers and potential witnesses to the OISL."
"We also request the UK Government to take up the matter of Sri Lanka proscribing
organisations and individuals abusing UN Security Council Resolution 1373 and to work
with others in the international community to ensure the proscription is rescinded," the group added.
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