Canada Slams Commonwealth SG Sharma Over Burying Legal Reports On Sri Lanka
August 20, 2013
It is hard to understand why legal opinions sought on the Sri Lankan impeachment of CJ Shirani Bandaranayake by the Commonwealth Secretariat was not shared with the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) before their most recent meeting, Canada’s Commonwealth Envoy, Senator Hugh Segal told Colombo Telegraph.
Senator Hugh Segal
It was understandable that the Secretary General should have commissioned independent legal and constitutional opinions about the impeachment of the Sri Lankan Chief Justice since he had formally expressed deep and public concern about the impeachment some weeks earlier, Segal said.
“That any such opinions,once received,were not shared with the members of the CMAG, before their most recent discussions which included a long engagement on Sri Lanka and CHOGM is, however, much harder to understand,” the Canadian Envoy to the Commonwealth said in response to questions posed by Colombo Telegraph.
“CMAG,under the distinguished leadership of the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh,had the right to those opinions before they met,” Segal observed.
He added that transparency within the Commonwealth has experienced a setback of substance. Read Mor
Indrani Bagchi, TNN | Aug 18, 2013NEW DELHI: Even as GL Peiris, Sri Lanka foreign minister, formally delivered an invitation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to theCHOGM summit in Colombo in November, the cacophony by Tamil parties may cast a shadow on India's participation at the event.
"India is the largest democracy in the world andCHOGM is being held in South Asia for the first time in 24 years. India's presence is crucial, we hope the PM will be there," Peiris said, though he refused to be drawn into the possible effects of a no-show by Singh.
In an election year, the government is unusually sensitive to regional allies. Peiris said Sri Lanka would be hosting Navi Pillay, UN high commissioner for human rights towards the end of August in the run up to a review of Sri Lanka's human rights situation in September. this will be followed by a comprehensive report by the high commissioner in March 2014. The issue of Indian fishermen straying into Lankan waters, he said, was increasing everyday and now acquiring a political dimension.
Peiris said they would now keep the Indian fishermen in custody and penalise them for crossing the border. Indian fishermen also use bottom trawling which is wreaking havoc for the marine life in those waters. "There are 400-500 boats a day coming into Lankan waters," he said.
With the northern provinces going for elections in September, all eyes will be on the conduct of the elections and whether the TNA will be allowed to form a government if they do win. Peiris dismissed these concerns saying they had invited international observers including the chief election commissioner of India to oversee the elections. "Of course they will be allowed to form a government." But he was very critical of what he calls attempts by the Tamil diaspora to ensure Sri Lanka's economic isolation.
"There is no chance of another war, so their methods have changed," he said, explaining that the "campaign" by overseas Tamils was intended to hurt tourism and investments into Sri Lanka. end
