Future Labour government to reexamine military assistance to Sri Lanka (VIDEO)
- Post 29 May 2019
British military assistance to Sri Lanka will be reviewed under a future Labour government, says opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Speaking to JDS on the sidelines of an event in London marking 10 years since the massacre in Sri Lanka that ended the war, the Labour party leader said that there will be “strict arms export licensing system” to stop UK arms being used abroad for repression or oppression.
“That means the situation in Sri Lanka has to be examined,” said Jeremy Corbyn.
Appalling massacre
“And we have made it very clear that we would do exactly that because of the ongoing concerns that exist particularly with respect to the Tamil people in the north and the east of the country.”
The Labour leader was visiting the “Tamils of Lanka: A Timeless Heritage” exhibition organised by the Tamil Information Centre (TIC) based in London to mark ten years since the end of war in which the UN estimates that at least 70,000 civilians were killed.
Sri Lanka has ignored calls for an independent investigation. Jeremy Corbyn who said “the massacre of 2009 was appalling” promised that a future Labour government under him “will do everything we can to ensure that justice is done”.
Independent investigators should have access “to all records, military and civilian and all parts of Sri Lanka” he added.☐
© JDS
