Little response for online petition against SL

11 February 2012 01:50 am

An online petition, created in August 2011, calling on the British Government to support an independent investigation into alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka has only attracted 3,430 signatures to date.

This falls far short of 100,000 signatures required for the petition to be considered for a debate in UK’s House of Commons.

The petition in the official e-petition website of the UK Government urges the “British Government to support the establishment of an independent, international inquiry into the credible allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Sri Lanka during the final months of the armed conflict in 2009, as recommended in the ‘Report of the UN Secretary General's Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka’.”

The online petition has been created by Dr. Arujuna Sivananthan and closes on 24 August 2012.

According to the e-petition website, if a petition reaches 100,000 signatures it is eligible for a debate in the House of Commons.

A debate may however not be possible if the subject of the e-petition is currently going through legal proceedings or if there has just been, or is about to be, a debate in the House of Commons on the same topic.

The Directgov website which hosts e-petitions by UK citizens also maintains a record of the signatories and shows the total number of signatures. But it doesn’t display the names or any other details of the signatories. (Ayesha Zuhair)