Douglas Alexander MP Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary, responding to reports indicating that Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh will not attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Sri Lanka, said:

 

“The indications that Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, may withhold his attendance at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka are a reminder that David Cameron has missed a significant opportunity to pressure the Sri Lankan government on its human rights record.

 

“David Cameron’s own government’s human rights audit recently designated Sri Lanka as a “country of concern” because of the on-going use of torture and extrajudicial killings by the police.

 

“For months Labour has called on David Cameron to use the prospect of his non-attendance at the Commonwealth summit to exert real pressure on the Sri Lankan authorities, and encourage President Rajapaska to halt his government’s worrying disregard for the human rights of its citizens.”