Losing Canadian aid big loss, but survivable: Sri Lankan minister

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

 

Sri Lanka will get by if Canada withdraws aid support, says a senior Sri Lankan minister.

Photograph by: S.KODIKARA, AFP/Getty Images

OTTAWA — While he's hoping Canada will not boycott the next Commonwealth summit in Colombo, Sri Lanka, or cut aid over war crimes allegations, a senior Sri Lankan minister says his country will survive if it does.

"It would be a big loss," Vasudeva Nanayakkara told Postmedia News in an interview at the Sri Lankan High Commission in Ottawa. "But we'll do without it."

A UN report commissioned by Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon recently found "credible allegations" that Sri Lankan government forces and the rebel Tamil Tigers committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the final months of the country's civil conflict in May 2009.

The Sri Lankan government, however, has refused to accept an independent investigation — a position Prime Minister Stephen Harper criticized in the leadup to last weekend's Commonwealth leaders summit in Australia.

Unless those concerns are resolved within the next two years, Harper said, Canada will not attend the next Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka in 2013.

Harper also led the charge in demanding better human rights accountability within the Commonwealth — a position that sharply divided the 54-member group and was largely rejected after opposition from Sri Lanka and African states.

Canada is the second-largest contributor to the Commonwealth. Canada also has a long-standing relationship with Sri Lanka. It has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars in aid since the 1950s, including $35 million since the civil war ended.

Nanayakkara, the Sri Lankan minister of languages and social integration, said his country still requires assistance from the international community, and he encouraged Canada not to abandon it at this time.

"We need the support of all countries, particularly of Canada," he said. "As they have supported materially, they must give us moral strength to return to normalcy."

But he reiterated that if Canada were to cut aid ties or boycott the next Commonwealth summit, "we will have to do without."

"It would be too bad if Canada did not participate, especially when the venue is Sri Lanka," he said.

Nanayakkara rejected the UN report's conclusion, which found credible allegations the government killed civilians through "widespread shelling," including at hospitals, that it denied humanitarian assistance and that it tried to silence the media and critics through intimidation tactics.

"The panel report was biased and based on one-sided evidence," he said. "We had no chance to get our ideas across to the panel before they finished their report."

If the UN Human Rights Council were to order an investigation into the allegations, Nanayakkara said his government would agree to open its doors. But an independent investigation would violate Sri Lanka's sovereignty, he said.

In the meantime, Sri Lanka has set up its own commission to study the final days of the war, he said, with a final report due Nov. 15.

Nanayakkara alleged Harper and the Canadian government are being swayed by members of Canada's estimated 300,000-strong Tamil community in their demands for an independent investigation.

"This diaspora has prominent offices, prominent cadres and paid cadres who run offices in order to keep disseminating their information," he said.

"Perhaps the legislators and the political parties tend to think what the diaspora Tamils, hardliners, are now complaining about is all true."

Canadian Tamil Congress spokesman David Poopalapillai rejected the allegations, saying Canada is standing up for human rights.

"We are very happy as Tamil-Canadians that Canada and the prime minister have taken a very strong stand on this," he said. "Traditionally, Canada has stood for marginalized people. I think our prime minister is following the same path."