Amnesty Wants Commonwealth Meeting Moved From Sri Lanka

By Joanna Sugden

Ron D’Raine/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Sri Lankan President Mahendra Rajapaksa at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Perth, Oct. 30, 2011.

Amnesty International has joined the calls for Commonwealth nations to relocate a major meeting from Sri Lanka, days after the Indian secretary general of the Commonwealth indicated that such a move would be rejected. 

In a report titled “Assault on Dissent,” Amnesty International said the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November should be moved from Colombo in protest over the country’s human rights record. Human Rights Watch made a similar request in February. 

A U.N. panel in 2011 found that 40,000 people, mainly Tamil civilians, died in the final stages of the 27-year civil war in Sri Lanka. A U.S.-sponsored resolution has called on Colombo to investigate crimes allegedly committed by government forces against the minority Tamil community. 

In its report published Tuesday, Amnesty International said the Sri Lankan government was “intensifying their efforts to eradicate dissent, striking out against prominent national institutions, including the judiciary, and public figures who express opposition to government policies and practices.” 

Polly Truscott, Amnesty’s deputy Asia Pacific director, said that all attacks on individuals in Sri Lanka must be investigated promptly and impartially if the country is to host the meeting. Those responsible for the attacks should be held to account, she said. 

Canada publically denounced the decision to hold the meeting in Sri Lanka, but the country has stopped short of a boycott, according to a BBC report.  

John Baird, Canada’s foreign secretary, said Saturday his country “finds it appalling that the government in Colombo would be given the honor and the privilege and responsibility of hosting Commonwealth leaders.” 

“The Commonwealth has fundamental values of freedom, democracy, human rights, the rule of law, good governance and the government in Colombo has failed in all of those respects,” he told the BBC.

No other Commonwealth member states, which include India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, have expressed concern about holding the meeting in Sri Lanka. 

Friday, the secretary general of the Commonwealth, Kamalesh Sharma, said the organization had been “engaging across a wide front with Sri Lanka.” 

“I am sure it will yield very good results in all the areas of human rights, of rule of law, of governance, and institution building and strengthening,” Mr. Sharma told a press conference following a meeting of the Commonwealth ministerial action group, which deals with serious and persistent violations of Commonwealth values. 

Mr. Sharma said he was “fully persuaded” that all member states were sincere in subscribing to Commonwealth values. 

The CHOGM convenes every two years to discuss global issues including human rights, multilateral trade, democracy and peace.  The host nation then serves as chair of the group of nations for two years.