LatestBritain’s Foreign Office according to a report in the Guardian has destroyed almost 200 files on Sri Lanka dating from the start of a Tamil Tiger uprising during which MI5 and the SAS secretly advised the country’s security forces, it has emerged. The loss of the files means that there is almost no record of the British government’s work with the Sri Lankan authorities at the start of the country's civil war. The destruction of the files raises fresh concerns about the Foreign Office’s attitude towards handling historic files on sensitive subjects. The Foreign Office has now confirmed that it destroyed 195 files on Sri Lanka, dating from 1978 to 1980, three decades after the country became independent from Britain. The scale of destruction is such that only three files have survived from 1978, compared to 38 files from the previous year.

Source: Sunday Times May 24, 2018 05:37 UTC