Mahinda Rajapaksa hits out at human rights critics during Commonwealth summit

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has hits out at critics who questioned the country's human rights record during the Commonwealth summit.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo, Rajapaksa said Sri Lanka has a legal system and it should be respected.

He said that if anyone wanted to complain about human rights violations in Sri Lanka there was a system in the country.

He said his government ended killings in the country by defeating Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009.

According to the BBC, several leaders have boycott the event and British PM David Cameron has said he will raise 'tough questions' over Lanka's poor human rights record.

Rajapaksa said that killings had taken place in Sri Lanka not only in 2009, as his government crushed the rebels, but for 30 years up until then, including children and pregnant women, the report said.

He said his government was ready to take action against anyone found guilty of violating rights but it would not 'divide the country'.

According to the report, as Colombo began welcoming delegates from some 53 Commonwealth nations to the city on Wednesday, a group of Tamils whose family members disappeared during or after the civil war were prevented from travelling to Colombo.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper and Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam will not be attending the summit.

However, British Prime Minister David Cameron arrived to take part in the summit on Thursday.