Colombo, Dec 1 (DPA) Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s scheduled speech to the Oxford Union in London Thursday has been cancelled over fears of protests by Tamil minority groups demanding probes of alleged human rights violations, government officials said Wednesday.
Rajapaksa, currently in London, was invited by Oxford University to speak. But Tamil groups said they had called on the organisers to cancel the event.
In a statement, presidential secretary Lalith Weeratunga announced the cancellation for security reasons.
‘This is a decision that has been made unilaterally by the Oxford Union, reportedly as a result of pressure applied by pro-LTTE (Tamil rebel) activists,’ the statement said.
The Oxford Union confirmed the event had been called off, saying that ‘due to the sheer scale of the expected protests, we do not feel that the talk can reasonably and safely go ahead as planned’.
Rajapaksa’s visit to London came amid fresh allegations over human rights abuses that had taken place in the final phase of the military operations against Tamil rebels before the conflict was brought to an end in May 2009.
New footage of a massacre which is said to have been carried out by the Sri Lankan military was broadcast on British television Channel 4.
The defence ministry in Colombo and Sri Lanka’s High Commission in London have denied the allegations.
