Sri Lankan human rights dominate Commonwealth Q&A
Sri Lanka's human rights record dominates a Twitter Q&A session, with FCO minister Hugo Swire, about the next week's Commonwealth summit. Foreign Affairs Correspondent Jonathan Miller got involved.
Hugo Swire (@HugoSwire), the minister of state for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO), was answering questions from the public ahead of next week's Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka is a controversial choice to host the meeting:
- Allegations of major human rights abuses at the end of the country's civil war, including summary executions and the killing of civilians, remain unanswered.
- Torture and disappearances are alleged to continue in Sri Lanka to this day.
- The country's president, Mahindra Rajapaksa, is himself accused of grave ware crimes.
- At the start of this year the country's chief justice was unconstitutionally sacked, in a move that legal advice to the Commonwealth secretary-general said contravened the Commonwealth charter.
Nevertheless, a delegation of senior UK politicians, including Prime Minister David Cameron, will head to Colombo next week for the summit.
Channel 4 News has exposed the allegations of human rights abuses in Sri Lanka, both during and after the civil war, and has broadcast shocking footage of alleged atrocities.
Foreign Correspondent Jonathan Miller (@MillerC4), who has led Channel 4 News's coverage of Sri Lanka's human rights situation, asked five questions to Mr Swire:
