Sri Lanka’s leader vows rights reforms as debt crisis looms

By KRISHAN FRANCIS
Associated Press

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s leader has promised human rights reforms and justice for people missing from the country’s civil war, after years of resisting calls for such measures. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was speaking before a new session of Parliament as the government looks for international support in dealing with a heavy fiscal and debt crisis. Its refusal to address or investigate human rights and war crimes allegations from the civil war has been a source of tension in its relations with many Western countries and neighboring India. Sri Lanka has foreign debt obligations exceeding $7 billion this year and the currency crunch has led to a shortage of essential imported goods.