Lankan war criminals in UK

5 February 2011 01:00 pm

Hundreds of suspected war criminals are living in Britain including 73 from Sri Lanka, despite recommendations by a UK Border Agency unit that action be taken against them, UK media reported

A special war crimes unit within the UK immigration agency has recommended action against 495 individuals in the last five years believed to have taken part in torture, genocide, crimes against humanity or other war crimes.

But, according to figures provided to the all-party parliamentary group on genocide by the agency, only a fifth have been refused entry, removed or have left voluntarily, leaving 383 suspects at large. Allegations against 47 individuals were believed by the agency to merit further investigation by Scotland Yard, police confirmed.

The 383 suspects include 105 from Iraq, 75 from Afghanistan, 73 from Sri Lanka, 39 from Rwanda, 32 from Zimbabwe and 26 from the Democratic Republic of Congo. They are believed to include senior officials from Saddam Hussein's regime, a senior Afghan intelligence service official alleged to be involved in torture and a former police chief from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who confessed in a radio interview to overseeing torture.

Despite the introduction of laws to enable more domestic prosecutions of suspected war criminals, not a single case has been prosecuted in the UK courts. There have been no investigations of suspected war criminals since the laws came into force last year, according to the Metropolitan police. (Source – guardian.co.uk)