Colombo ( AsiaNews) - Clarify once and for all the government's role in the crimes committed during the civil war in Sri Lanka , or the international community will take action . This is the ultimatum set by the leaders of the Commonwealth after the meeting which ended yesterday in Colombo . On paper, the representatives of these countries signed a joint agreement on issues such as poverty and development. In practice, however, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting ( CHOGM ) turned into a debate on human rights violations committed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his executive .
The most explicit was the British prime minister David Cameron, who set Rajapaksa a precise deadline - March 2014 - within which he must show progress in post-conflict reconciliation. Beyond that date, specified the British prime minister, the United Kingdom will bring the matter to the attention of the UN.
Rajapaksa responded in kind to the charges leveled against his government , in particular those according to which the armed forces killed more than 40 thousand civilians in 2009, at the end of thirty years of ethnic conflict. "You can not tell me - said the President of Sri Lanka - to do something tomorrow, in a week or in three months. That is highly unfair. We have a legal system and a constitution. A [ rehabilitation ] process has already started . It will take time. "
