Mauritius PM is latest leader to boycott Commonwealth meet in Sri Lanka
In this photograph taken on January 30, 2011, Mauritius Prime Minister Navin Chandra Ramgoolam attends the opening ceremony of the 16th Ordinary Summit of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa. The Prime Minister of Mauritius announced on November 12, 2013, that he will stay away from this week's Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka because of the host's poor human rights record. Mauritius joins India and Canada in refusing to send a premier to Sri Lanka, which is accused of widespread human rights abuses against its Tamil minority and the killing of tens of thousands of civilians during its 2009 defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels. -- FILE PHOTO: AFP
Nov 12, 2013
PORT LOUIS (AFP) - The Prime Minister of Mauritius announced Tuesday he will stay away from this week's Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka because of the host's poor human rights record.
Mauritius joins India by refusing to send a premier to Sri Lanka, which is accused of widespread human rights abuses and the killing of tens of thousands of civilians during its 2009 defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels. Canada is totally boycotting the summit.
"This is a decision taken by a sovereign Mauritius in the face of the absence of progress in Sri Lanka on the respect of human rights," Prime Minister Navin Chandra Ramgoolam told the Mauritian Parliament.
He said that Mauritius, which will host the next Commonwealth Summit in 2015, believed that "human rights are more important than everything else".
Prime Minister of Mauritius to boycott Sri Lanka CHOGM
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 November 2013, 12:18 GMT]
Navin Ramgoolam, the Prime Minister of Mauritius, the country slated to host the next CHOGM at the conclusion of Sri Lanka's two year tenure, has reportedly decided to boycott the CHOGM meet in Colombo. Prime Minister Ramgoolam said that he made the decision because "he is a man of principle,” and added that he had received information that the situation in the north of the island of Sri Lanka has not improved in the four years after the war ended, Le Défi Media Group, a news media based in Port Louis reported Tuesday. 
Navinchandra Ramgoolam, Mauritian Prime Minister
