SRI LANKAN President Mahinda Rajapaksa ran into trouble well before the latest Commonwealth summit got under way in Colombo. India, Canada and Mauritius refused to attend citing Sri Lanka’s rights record. That, it turned out, was just the beginning. From among those who attended the summit, Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron slipped into Jaffna to ask after the survivors of a three-decade conflict that killed tens of thousands. According to estimates, government troops may have killed up to 40,000 civilians at the end of the Sri Lankan military’s war against Tamil rebels and Mr Cameron made a firm demand of Mr Rajapaksa: undertake a credible probe of your own into allegations of widespread rights abuse or face an inquiry by the United Nations. The summit communiqué did try to bring out other subjects, such as the economy, equality, democracy and human rights. Human rights abuse was, however, too powerful a theme after the British prime minister’s visit to Jaffna to allow other aspects to be in the spotlight.

This issue of a UN probe into the actions by a national government does not make for an easy debate. Where the UN intervenes, accusations of a selective approach are always likely to fly. But nor can too many governments be relied upon to investigate their own acts in a manner that appears to be transparent, fair and credible, which is where the UN option appears more credible. The Commonwealth is a robust enough group and with many of its prominent members having so strongly called for investigation of rights abuse in Jaffna, the consensus appears to be for an inquiry. Signs favour a probe and it is only a matter of how long Mr Rajapaksa can delay it.