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Sri Lanka

Sri Lankans protest at Rajapakse Oxford Union cancellation

Protests and counter-protests rocked Sri Lankan communities at home and in Britain, where Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajakpakse had an address at Britain's Oxford University cancelled on Thursday. On Friday, lawyers acting on behalf of Tamil activists applied for a war crimes arrest warrant against a Sri Lankan general who is part of Rajapaksa’s travelling entourage.

Reuters/Andrew Caballero-Reynolds
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Hundreds of ruling-party supporters demonstrated outside the British embassy on Friday in Colombo in response to the aborted address.

A statement for the university said that the scale of protests expected by Tamil supporters exceeded the school’s capability to ensure safety.

Thousands of activists were reportedly planning to block all paths leading to the venue where the president was scheduled to speak. More than 500 sign-carrying protestors had greeted Rajapakse’s arrival at London Heathrow Airport.

The already-charged atmosphere has been heightened further by recently released television images that allege to show interrogations and executions by Sri Lankan soldiers.

On Thursday Britain joined a chorus of Western allies, the United Nations and human rights groups for an independent probe into possible human rights violations in Sri Lanka.

Tamils accuse the Rajapakse government of war crimes as he quashed the long-running separatist movement in May 2009. The UN estimates that 7,000 died in the final months of the war, mostly Tamil civilians, but some put the number as high as 40,000.

Rajapakse has refused to permit an inquiry, believing it to be a violation of the country’s sovereignty.

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