The Gulf News, a Dubai-based newspaper, has called on Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to accept an international investigation, in an editorial published on Monday.

The paper said the government's campaign against the LTTE was 'marred by excesses', and that Rajapasa should admit that crimes were committed and establish responsibility for them.

See full editorial below.

In 2009, the Sri Lankan government won the decades-long struggle against the separatist Tamil Tigers, who had fought a particularly brutal war against the government with regular use of random acts of terror. The Sri Lankan army’s final campaign was marred by excesses, as the soldiers were desperate not to allow the terrorists to escape, even as they used tens of thousands of villagers as human shields to avoid the army’s assault.

Labour leader Ed Miliband said in the House of Commons today that Britain cannot let the human rights situation in Sri Lanka rest, and that his party would support any government moves to take action towards a war crimes inquiry.

"The Prime Minister of Canada and the Prime Minister of India decided not to attend this summit. In explaining his decision, Prime Minister Harper said this: 'In the past two years, we've seen a considerable worsening of the situation.

The British Premier, David Cameron, briefing the House of Commons on his trip to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), reiterating his calls for a credible, independent and international inquiry into Sri Lanka's war crimes should Colombo fail to undertake its own by March.

Following Cameron's summary of his CHOGM trip, the House of Commons embarked on an extensive discussion regarding the issues Tamils faced in Sri Lanka.

“Unfortunately, the Indian Prime Minister was not here; that is my only concern.”

“He is the closest friend we have. Had he come here, he would have run the show.”

“We Asians, we like Indians. He should have been here.”

Channel 4 News reporter, Jon Snow described his experience of the Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka and its build up as ‘trouble in paradise’.

See extracts form the blog post below.

“This turned out to be the worst attended Commonwealth leaders’ summit on record. 25 of the 53 presidents or prime ministers stayed away.”

“Hence the entire summit proved a strange event indeed.”

The Economist in a blog post today, summarised findings from the hosting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka.

See extracts below.

“International coverage focused heavily focused on disappearances of people during and after the civil war, media suppression and persistent allegations that war crimes were committed in 2009 as Tamil Tiger rebels were crushed.”

Speaking in a new documentary on the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka, a former doctor in the North-East, outlined his experience of being captured and imprisoned at the end of the ethnic conflict in 2009.

David Cameron was urged today to conduct an investigation into why the Conservative party received over £420000 from a telecoms company that has close links to Sri Lanka’s president, Lycamobile.

Speaking to the Huffington Post UK, Labour MP Tom Blenkinsop, said,

"Does anyone specifically have a question that's not on Sri Lanka or human rights?" the media spokesman for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting implored journalists at a press conference held by host president Mahinda Rajapaksa.

 

The normally diplomatic Richard Uku had just unwittingly summed up a CHOGM that can only be described as extraordinary for all the wrong reasons

 

Most CHOGM attendees have refrained as far as possible from embarrassing Mr Rajapaksa over questions about his regime's human rights record. Much of the talk at CHOGM focussed on Sri Lanka's positives, especially its promising post-conflict economic prospects.

 

But British prime minister David Cameron broke ranks. ...