{"id":44508,"date":"2012-06-07T19:56:22","date_gmt":"2012-06-07T19:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=44508"},"modified":"2012-06-07T19:56:22","modified_gmt":"2012-06-07T19:56:22","slug":"david-cameron-presses-rajapaksa-over-war-crimes-british-pm-denied-sri-lankan-media-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/david-cameron-presses-rajapaksa-over-war-crimes-british-pm-denied-sri-lankan-media-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"David Cameron Presses Rajapaksa Over War Crimes, British PM Denied Sri Lankan Media Reports"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Jonathan Miller<\/a>\u00a0–<\/strong><\/p>\n

A spokesman for the British Prime Minister has denied media reports from Sri Lanka on Thursday that David Cameron had had a \u201ccordial\u201d meeting with Sri Lankan President Mahinida Rajapakese during diamond jubilee celebrations in London.<\/p>\n

Amid confusion as to the exact direction of British foreign policy towards Sri Lanka, Channel 4 News has learned that the British Prime Minister in fact demanded accountability for alleged war crimes when the two leaders met\u00a0<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sri Lankan government does need this to be investigated\u2026 and we need to make sure we get to the bottom of what happened<\/p><\/div>\n

In May 2009, following the brutal end of a long civil war, President Rajapakse had promised the United Nations Secretary General that allegations of war crimes committed by Sri Lankan forces would be properly investigated.<\/p>\n

The United Nations Human Rights Council said this year that a proper, independent investigation had yet to take place.<\/p>\n

Mr Cameron and Mr Rajapakse were photographed standing next to each other at a jubilee lunch hosted by the Commonwealth Secretary General for the Queen on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of Tamil protestors had\u00a0gathered outside Marborough House<\/a>\u00a0and burned and hanged effigies of the Sri Lankan President as he and other heads of government arrived for the lunch. The President was driven past the protestors in an unmarked police Range Rover.<\/p>\n

The Sri Lankan Daily Mirror\u00a0quoted the President\u2019s spokesman, Bandula Jayasekera<\/a>\u00a0as saying that Mr Cameron and Mr Rajapakse had held a \u201ccordial\u201d meeting and that the President had briefed the Prime Minister \u201con the development in the country\u201d [sic].<\/p>\n

Mr Jayasekera told the Colombo Gazette that\u00a0\u201cMr Cameron and Mr Rajapakse had held \u201cone-to-one talks\u201d<\/a>.\u00a0 The paper said that \u201cthe details of that discussion [were] not immediately made available by the President\u2019s office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now it is clear why those details were not made available.\u00a0 Their \u201cone-to-one\u201d was not what most people would consider a \u201cfriendly\u201d chat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Prime Minister raised the issue of making sure that allegations of war crimes in Sri Lanka were properly investigated,\u201d said Craig Oliver, the Prime Minister\u2019s spokesman.\u00a0 At the request of\u00a0Channel 4 News<\/strong>, he had checked directly with Mr Cameron during a prime ministerial visit to Norway on Thursday.<\/p>\n

We have been unable to contact Mr Jayasekera for a response to this.\u00a0 Last night, the Sri Lankan president left London for Rome, where he is understood to have arranged an audience with the Pope at the Vatican.\u00a0 Recent efforts to secure an interview with the president by Channel 4 News were brusquely rebuffed by Mr Jayasekera.<\/p>\n

The Sri Lankan government used an earlier presidential visit to London for apparently propaganda purposes at home, presenting Mr Rajapakse as being warmly welcomed \u2013 when that is not in fact what happened.<\/p>\n

In December 2010 the president\u2019s planned\u00a0address at the Oxford Union debating society had to be cancelled\u00a0<\/a>because of security fears over planned demonstrations. The president was later photographed with the then Defence Secretary, Liam Fox, during a private meeting at the Dorchester Hotel, where Mr Rajapakse was staying.<\/p>\n

The pictures appeared on the president\u2019s website and in Sri Lankan newspapers and were presented as official British government endorsement of the president.<\/p>\n

Following the screening of the award-winning Channel 4 documentary\u00a0Sri Lanka\u2019s Killing Fields\u00a0<\/a>last year, the Prime Minister said the \u201cextremely powerful programme\u201d had referred to what he called \u201csome very worrying events\u201d.\u00a0 The events in question were the reported killing of an estimated 40,000 Tamil civilians by government forces at the end of the Sri Lankan civil war in 2009.<\/p>\n

Speaking at Prime Minister\u2019s Questions in the House of Commons, Mr Cameron said\u00a0 that \u201cthe Sri Lankan government does need this to be investigated\u2026 and we need to make sure we get to the bottom of what happened\u2026 \u201d<\/p>\n

In March this year, Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said that a follow-up Channel 4 documentary War Crimes Unpunished\u00a0 \u201creinforced the need for that investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The following week, the\u00a0United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution\u00a0<\/a>calling on Sri Lanka to initiate \u201ccredible and independent actions\u201d to ensure justice and accountability.<\/p>\n

Channel 4 news\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":44512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nDavid Cameron Presses Rajapaksa Over War Crimes, British PM Denied Sri Lankan Media Reports - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/david-cameron-presses-rajapaksa-over-war-crimes-british-pm-denied-sri-lankan-media-reports\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"David Cameron Presses Rajapaksa Over War Crimes, British PM Denied Sri Lankan Media Reports - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/david-cameron-presses-rajapaksa-over-war-crimes-british-pm-denied-sri-lankan-media-reports\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-06-07T19:56:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/David-Cameron-.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"460\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"276\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/david-cameron-presses-rajapaksa-over-war-crimes-british-pm-denied-sri-lankan-media-reports\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/david-cameron-presses-rajapaksa-over-war-crimes-british-pm-denied-sri-lankan-media-reports\/\",\"name\":\"David Cameron Presses Rajapaksa Over War Crimes, British PM Denied Sri Lankan Media Reports - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/david-cameron-presses-rajapaksa-over-war-crimes-british-pm-denied-sri-lankan-media-reports\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/david-cameron-presses-rajapaksa-over-war-crimes-british-pm-denied-sri-lankan-media-reports\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/David-Cameron-.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-06-07T19:56:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/david-cameron-presses-rajapaksa-over-war-crimes-british-pm-denied-sri-lankan-media-reports\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/david-cameron-presses-rajapaksa-over-war-crimes-british-pm-denied-sri-lankan-media-reports\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/david-cameron-presses-rajapaksa-over-war-crimes-british-pm-denied-sri-lankan-media-reports\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/David-Cameron-.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/David-Cameron-.jpg\",\"width\":\"460\",\"height\":\"276\",\"caption\":\"British Prime Minister David Cameron\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/david-cameron-presses-rajapaksa-over-war-crimes-british-pm-denied-sri-lankan-media-reports\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"David Cameron Presses Rajapaksa Over War Crimes, British PM Denied Sri Lankan Media Reports\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\",\"name\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"David Cameron Presses Rajapaksa Over War Crimes, British PM Denied Sri Lankan Media Reports - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/david-cameron-presses-rajapaksa-over-war-crimes-british-pm-denied-sri-lankan-media-reports\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"David Cameron Presses Rajapaksa Over War Crimes, British PM Denied Sri Lankan Media Reports - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[…]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/david-cameron-presses-rajapaksa-over-war-crimes-british-pm-denied-sri-lankan-media-reports\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2012-06-07T19:56:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":460,"height":276,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/David-Cameron-.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/david-cameron-presses-rajapaksa-over-war-crimes-british-pm-denied-sri-lankan-media-reports\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/david-cameron-presses-rajapaksa-over-war-crimes-british-pm-denied-sri-lankan-media-reports\/","name":"David Cameron Presses Rajapaksa Over War Crimes, British PM Denied Sri Lankan Media Reports - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/david-cameron-presses-rajapaksa-over-war-crimes-british-pm-denied-sri-lankan-media-reports\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/david-cameron-presses-rajapaksa-over-war-crimes-british-pm-denied-sri-lankan-media-reports\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/David-Cameron-.jpg","datePublished":"2012-06-07T19:56:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/david-cameron-presses-rajapaksa-over-war-crimes-british-pm-denied-sri-lankan-media-reports\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/david-cameron-presses-rajapaksa-over-war-crimes-british-pm-denied-sri-lankan-media-reports\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/david-cameron-presses-rajapaksa-over-war-crimes-british-pm-denied-sri-lankan-media-reports\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/David-Cameron-.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/David-Cameron-.jpg","width":"460","height":"276","caption":"British Prime Minister David Cameron"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/david-cameron-presses-rajapaksa-over-war-crimes-british-pm-denied-sri-lankan-media-reports\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"David Cameron Presses Rajapaksa Over War Crimes, British PM Denied Sri Lankan Media Reports"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3","name":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/David-Cameron-.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44508"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44517,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44508\/revisions\/44517"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}