Britain's Opposition Labour Party on Thursday backed the demand of its Tamil activists for an international commission to investigate allegations of human rights violations in Sri Lanka.
Addressing them at the party's annual conference in Liverpool, shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander said there were “profound concerns” about the independence, accountability and witness protection capacity of Sri Lanka's domestic inquiry, the ‘Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission'.
“I feel it is right, and after discussions with my shadow frontbench team, to say we are not convinced that this Commission can do its work even with international participation and there does need to be an international commission that looks into the evidence,” he said.
Mr. Alexander promised to take up with the government the move to deport 50 dissident Sri Lankan Tamils back to their country despite fears that they could face harassment.
“We need to be clear that the British government has done its job in ensuring that these people are not going to be subjected to torture,'' he said.
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