UN expert backs Sri Lanka CHOGM boycott

Human rights expert Yasmin Sooka praised Canada for saying it would boycott the November CHOGM meeting unless Sri Lanka investigates suspected war crimes.

29 APR 2013,

Sri Lanka is still perpetrating human rights abuses and must not be rewarded by hosting a major Commonwealth summit, a human rights expert says. 

A Sri Lankan human rights expert says she's shocked the country will be allowed to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) this year despite ongoing cases of torture and disappearances.

Yasmin Sooka, who was asked by UN chief Ban Ki-moon to investigate allegations of human rights abuses during Sri Lanka's war, says the country is still perpetrating abuses against its own civilians.

"People continue to be tortured and disappeared," she told ABC radio on Monday.

"Sri Lanka is quite frankly descending into a state where the rule of law no longer holds sway."

She praised Canada for saying it would boycott the November CHOGM meeting unless Sri Lanka investigates suspected war crimes.

"In the absence of any action by the government of Sri Lanka, they should not be rewarded by being allowed to host CHOGM," she said.

Ms Sooka says she's surprised other commonwealth countries, including Australia, are taking "such a weak line" in saying they will attend the meeting.

"I must say I'm surprised by Australia ... it's quite shocking," she said.

The federal government says it disagrees with Canada's position and will not join a boycott of the event.

Australian Greens leader Christine Milne accused Prime Minister Julia Gillard of turning a blind eye to the growing reports of human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.

"She's turning that blind eye because she thinks it's more important to send asylum seekers back to Sri Lanka than actually address the reason why they're seeking asylum in the first place," she told reporters in Melbourne.

"Australia should stay home from CHOGM."

Australia has returned more than 1000 failed asylum seekers back to Sri Lanka since August 2012.

CHOGM should still be in Sri Lanka:Carr

PM Stephen Harper says Canada will boycott CHOGM unless Sri Lanka investigates suspected war crimes. Source: AAP

• AAP-
  • April 28, 2013

news.com.au

THE federal government believes Sri Lanka should still host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) this year despite Canada calling for the event to be moved because of human rights concerns.

Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird condemned the decision on Friday by his Commonwealth counterparts in London to continue with the meeting despite strong criticism over Colombo's human rights record as "accommodating evil".

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said Canada will boycott the November 15-17 meeting unless Sri Lanka investigates suspected war crimes including the alleged indiscriminate killing of civilians by government troops in the climax of the civil war in 2009.

A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr says Australia disagreed with Canada on moving the CHOGM meeting from Sri Lanka.

"We will be attending CHOGM and we don't support having it moved," the spokesman told AAP on Sunday

"We believe it is important to engage with Sri Lanka rather than seeking to isolate them."

He said Australia had a good relationship with the southern Asian nation.

"We do raise human rights concerns with them."

No other nation supported the views of Canada at Friday's meeting, the spokesman said.

Opposition justice and border protection spokesman Michael Keenan said Australia should keep talking with Sri Lanka to improve the environment there.

"(I) actually support the position that the government has taken here and we certainly should be present at CHOGM when it occurs there later this year," Mr Keenan told ABC Television.

Former prime minister Malcolm Fraser added his name in the past week to a petition calling on Australia to join with Canada in avoiding the biennial CHOGM in the Sri Lankan city of Hambantota in November.