Sunday, July 31, 2011

Lanka needs to look into war crimes allegations carefully - Rao

Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said Sri Lanka has to look into war crimes allegations carefully.
In an interview with Headlines Today, on her last day in office, the United States ambassador designate was queried on allegations of human rights violations in Sri Lanka and the controversial Channel 4 video amongst other topics.

Asked about a Channel 4 documentary, aired recently on Headlines Today, which showed the horrific way Sri Lankan Tamils were butchered in the last days of the armys war against the LTTE rebels, Rao said, "They have to look at it carefully. As per the video, there were human right violations during the last few days of the war they were fighting. It cannot be justified any way. But it was a war zone. It should also be taken into consideration that there were tragedies in Sri Lanka."
"We must take care of it in the neighbourhood. We have to avoid jumping into conclusions on any third partys involvement. We have to directly involve into dialogue with them. After all, India is the closest neighbour of Sri Lanka," Rao cautioned.
She also noted that "We must take care of it in the neighborhood and have to avoid jumping into conclusions on any third partys involvement.
India’s outgoing Foreign Secretary said yesterday that the issue has to be resolved within the region and that India has to be directly involved.
OB