Queen urged to boycott Sri Lanka summit over killing

COLOMBO, March 8, 2013 (AFP) - An English politician Friday urged the Queen to boycott the Commonwealth summit in Colombo later this year to protest against Sri Lanka's failure to prosecute the killers of a British tourist in 2011.







International rights groups have said up to 40,000 civilians may have been killed in the final offensive while Sri Lanka maintains that not a single civilian was killed by its troops.





The MP Simon Danczuk said his constituent, Khuram Sheikh, was gunned down at a hotel in Sri Lanka's southern town of Tangalle on Christmas day in 2011, but 15 months on there was no progress in the case.

Danczuk, who was accompanied by the victim's brother, Nasir Sheikh, 40, on a visit to Colombo to press for justice, said Sri Lankan authorities had failed to deliver on promises to bring the killers to justice.

The main suspect in the killing, a local ruling party politician, was initially arrested, but later freed on bail. No date has been fixed for trial.

The MP said Sri Lanka as a member of the 54-nation bloc should uphold Commonwealth values and must be held accountable. He said senior Sri Lankan ministers refused to discuss the lack of progress in the prosecution.

"I will press for a boyc