British FCO prevents group of Conservative MPs coming during CHOGM 

By Shamindra Ferdinando-November 9, 2013, 

With the 22nd edition of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) a few days away, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has intervened to prevent a group of dissenting Conservative MPs from attending the confab, well informed sources told The Sunday Island.

Sources claimed that six MPs would have taken a position on Sri Lanka contrary to that of UK Premier David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague thereby undermining the overall British strategy.

Responding to a query, sources said that as they had visited Sri Lanka previously the MPs would have been in a better position to examine the situation on the ground since the conclusion of the conflict in May 2009.

UK based sources said that the unprecedented move had come to light in the wake of UK Premier Cameron meeting representatives of three groups, namely the Global Tamil Forum (GTF), British Tamil Forum (BTF) and Tamils against Genocide a few days ago. Sources alleged that the FCO move was meant to ensure that the UK addressed the accountability issues in one voice during Premier Cameron’s much publicized visit to Colombo.

The British delegation is also scheduled to visit Jaffna.

Authoritative sources pointed out that the Canadian government had taken a position contrary to that of the British. Although the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Foreign Affairs and International Human Rights Minister John Baird had boycotted the Colombo summit accusing Sri Lanka of war time atrocities, Canada would be represented by Deepak Obhrai, parliamentary secretary to Baird.

Sources said that in spite of Obhrai being a low level representative, he would be able to examine the situation on the ground much better than the Canadian Premier and the Foreign Minister as he (Obhrai) was one of the few foreign parliamentarians to visit the Vanni shortly after the conclusion of the war. In fact, the Canadian Minister had the opportunity to meet a few Canadians nationals of Sri Lankan origin captured during the Vanni push, sources said.

"We provided him with an SLAF chopper to visit the Vanni," a senior official told The Sunday Island.

Sources recalled an explosive Wiki Leaks revelation regarding the former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband playing politics with the Sri Lankan issue in the run-up to the final battle to appease the electorate comprising Tamils of Sri Lankan origin.