Britain will add its weight to calls for an independent investigation into alleged war crimes by Sri Lankan troops against Tamil civilians and rebels when William Hague meets the country’s foreign minister tomorrow.
The Foreign Secretary’s talks with Gamini Lakshman Peiris will be the first high-level meeting between Sri Lanka and Britain’s coalition Government. It will take place in London after new photographs of alleged battlefield executions by Sri Lankan troops — said to have been committed in the final phase of the brutal 26-year civil war that ended last year — were circulated by pro-Tamil activists yesterday.
The pictures were reportedly taken on May 18 and May 19, 2009, as the army was defeating the final remaining fighters of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eealam, the separatist group also known as the Tamil Tigers.
The images appear to show dozens of dead men and women, many of whom appear to have been shot in the head.
One photograph depicts a pile of naked corpses loaded on a flat-bed truck while other bodies are seen in shallow graves. Some have their hands bound behind their backs.
S.J. Emmanuel, the President of
Global Tamil Forum, said: “We do not know the authenticity of [the new] photographs. However this makes the case stronger for an impartial independent international investigation.
