TNA defends bid to thwart CHOGM 2010 in C’bo Govt. lashes out at Sumanthiran, Dr. Pakiasothy

By Shamindra Ferdinando-April 28, 2013

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian M. A. Sumanthiran yesterday defended campaigning in London against Sri Lanka hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo later this year. The TNA wanted the venue shifted to a suitable venue regardless of a previous decision to allow Sri Lanka to host the meeting.

National List MP Sumanthiran faulted the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) for giving Sri Lanka the honour of hosting the summit in spite of the government violating Commonwealth doctrine, including Latimar House principles that dealt with the judiciary of member states.The MP was responding to government accusations that he along with Dr. Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu, overall Coordinator of programmes conducted by Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA), made representations in London against the government.

Government sources told The Island that MP Sumanthiran and Saravanamuttu, executive director of the CPA had launched a joint campaign in London ahead of Commonwealth Secretary General, Kamalesh Sharma’s announcement in favour of Sri Lanka. Sources alleged that the UK based Global Tamil Forum (GTF), too, had campaigned alongside the TNA and the CPA.

Responding to a query, a senior official told The Island that External Affairs Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris visited London in the wake of the anti-Sri Lanka campaign to counter the eelamist project. The minister who had been on an official visit to Romania flew to London from there, sources said.

London based GTF spokesman Suren Surendiran told The Island, before Sharma’s announcement, that Tamil grouping wanted the change of CHOGM venue from Colombo to Chennai. Surendiran stressed that the GTF would push for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to skip the Colombo summit.

Sumanthiran said that during his visit to London for some other event he had the opportunity to attend the launch of ‘A Crisis of Legitimacy: The Impeachment of Chief Justice Bandaranayake and the Erosion of the Rule of Law in Sri Lanka’, at the House of Lords. "Subsequently, I was invited by the Commonwealth Journalists’ Association for a meeting where contentious issues were raised. I reiterated my position that as Sri Lanka had violated Commonwealth standards, particularly Latimar House principles it shouldn’t be given the honour of hosting the summit."

Asked whether he had campaigned jointly with CPA chief Saravanamuttu against the government, Sumanthiran said that the latter, too, was present at meetings.

The MP politely declined to identify those whom he had met in London. Responding to a query, the TNA rising star said that the issue was the government in spite of failing to address both local and international concerns on accountability issues. The government move to take over thousands of acres in the Jaffna peninsula as well as the Vanni mainland meant that President Mahinda Rajapaksa had no intention of resettling those displaced in their original places of living, the MP alleged. Instead of national reconciliation, the government had been working overtime since the conclusion of the war to strengthen its military position at the expense of Tamil speaking people, the MP said. The bottom line was that the government was reversing national reconciliation process instead of taking meaningful measures to reconcile.