§ Mr. Temple-Morrisasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on British-Sri Lanka relations with particular reference to human rights in that country and their application to the Tamil community.
§ Mr. WhitneyWe have good relations with the Sri Lankan Government, to whom we have expressed our hope that Sri Lanka's intercommunal problems can be solved peacefully and democratically. We regret the incidents of violence which have occurred in Sri Lanka both as a result of terrorist action and in rioting last July. We welcome the all-party conference in Colombo, which reconvened on 9 May. We hope that it can make progress towards a settlement acceptable to all sides so as to ensure the human rights of all the peoples of Sri Lanka. We shall continue to give our support to a policy of reconciliation between the communities in Sri Lanka.