Commonwealth at the crossroads

   

By Peter Kellner

 Story Updated: Oct 23, 2011 at 10:40 PM ECT 

Story Created: Oct 23, 2011 at 10:40 PM ECT

Commonwealth conferences used to matter. Their decisions helped to end Apartheid in South Africa and white rule in Zimbabwe. Their debates, especially during the Thatcher era, made big news.

No longer. Apart from insiders and a few obsessives, who knows or cares what Commonwealth leaders decided two years ago in Trinidad, or what they will discuss this week in Australia? The institution is sleep-walking towards irrelevance. As chairman of the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS), a charity devoted to the promotion of Commonwealth links and values, I fear for the future. The Commonwealth could become one of the world's great 21st century networks. It won't unless the Presidents and Prime Ministers who gather in Perth insist on big changes.     Read more »      

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Sri Lankan Tamils press for justice

By Michael Perry

PERTH, Australia | Mon Oct 24, 2011 2:31pm IST

(Reuters) - Meena Krishnamurthy still remembers the coloured slippers littered in the dirt around a bombed-out orphanage in Sri Lanka and a legless teenage girl unable to leave her dirt bunker, begging for a drink of nearby contaminated water.

Then there were the bodies, too many to count, including her own stillborn baby which she was forced to bury in a bucket before hastily retreating as Sri Lankan troops advanced.   Full Story>>>