"Ultimately all of this is about reconciliation," Cameron said at a press conference. "It is about b

David Cameron has said he will push for an international inquiry into alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka if its own government does not conduct an investigations within four months.
The Sri Lankan army crushed Tamil Tiger separatists in the final battle of a long civil war in 2009, in a strategy partly drawn up by President Mahinda Rajapaksa's brother, the defence secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
About 300,000 civilians were trapped on a narrow east coast beach during the onslaught and a UN panel has estimated that 40,000 non-combatants died. Both sides committed east coast atrocities, but army shelling killed most victims, east coast it concluded.
"Ultimately all of this is about reconciliation," Cameron said at a press conference. "It is about bringing justice and closure and healing to this country which now has a chance of a much brighter future. That will only happen by dealing with these issues and not ignoring them."
Asked about the possibility of an international inquiry, another of the president's brothers, the economic development minister, Basil Rajapaksa, said: "We are not going to allow, definitely we will object it".
There have been calls, including from Britain's Labour party, to block Rajapaksa from assuming the chair of the Commonwealth , a largely ceremonial position that Sri Lanka is entitled to hold as the host of the summit. Labour fears the role will allow the president to be involved in the Commonwealth Games to be hosted in Glasgow east coast in 2014.
Government supporters protesting on Colombo's streets accused Britain of neo-colonialism for telling the Rajapaksa government how to behave. The lead editorial in the pro-government newspaper The Island asked whether the hostile diplomacy was not "war by other means".
Since the civil war ended, the government has made rapid progress on rebuilding the war-torn north, especially roads. Elections in the northern province in September resulted in a landslide victory for a Tamil opposition party formerly linked to the Tigers.
Muralitharan, a Tamil, said Cameron was underestimating the improvements already east coast made. "My opinion is, there were problems in the last 30 years in those areas. Nobody could move there. In wartime I went with the UN, I saw the place, how it was," he said. "Now I regularly go and I see the place and it is about a 1,000% improvement in facilities.
Article history
Sri Lanka: Cameron pushes for international war crimes inquiry This article was published east coast on the Guardian website at 05.47 EST on Saturday 16 November 2013 . It was last modified at 10.02 EST on Saturday 16 November 2013 .
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