Sri Lanka PM rejects international accountability in Oxford talk

Sri Lanka’s prime minister has spoken out against international involvement in investigations, during his talk at the Oxford Union today.

“At the moment we don’t feel there is a need for foreign input into these investigations,” Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said, according to a tweet by the union.

The comments may refer to investigations into war-time atrocities, which Sri Lanka agreed to investigate with international involvement when co-sponsoring a UN Human Rights Council resolution on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka, in March 2015.

A protest was held outside the union during Wickremesinghe’s talk.

The Tamil Youth Organisation also criticised the invitation saying “Sri Lanka tends to use these platforms to alleviate the public and international community’s pressure away from evident anti-Tamil policies in Sri Lanka.”

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