Australian envoy says Sri Lankan war crimes allegations must be investigated

Rejecting criticism of Australian troops conducting military training with Sri Lankan counterparts, an Australian envoy stressed however, that the allegations of war crimes were "serious" and required investigation, the AP reported. 

“The approach we are taking is that we do want to work with the Sri Lankan tri-services. The war finished 10 years ago. We need to think about the future,” Australia's acting ambassador John Philp said.

“We do know that there are serious allegations. We certainly believe that they should be taken seriously,” Philp said, adding that Australia drew confidence from Sri Lanka's co-sponsoring of the UN Human Rights Council resolution, which calls for the investigation of war crimes. 

Earlier this month Australia launched a large scale military exercise with Sri Lanka as part of the Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019 (IPE-19).