MPs Blast 'Timid' Government Over Sri Lanka Summit

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  • 7/27/2019 MPs Blast 'Timid' Government Over Sri Lanka Summit

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    MPs blast 'timid' government over SriLanka summit

    JONATHAN MILLERForeign AffairsCorrespondent

    17 OCTOBER 2013Britain's decision to set aside worries about Sri Lanka's human rights record

    and back its selection as host of a Commonwealth leaders' meeting showed

    a lack of principle, MPs say.

    Object1

    Less than a month before David Cameron leads the British delegation to the

    Commonwealth Heads of Government summit in Sri Lanka, senior

    parliamentarians have accused the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    http://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-human-rights-record-commonwealth-david-cameronhttp://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-human-rights-record-commonwealth-david-cameronhttp://www.channel4.com/news/jonathan-millerhttp://www.channel4.com/news/david-cameronhttp://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lankahttp://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-human-rights-record-commonwealth-david-cameronhttp://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-human-rights-record-commonwealth-david-cameronhttp://www.channel4.com/news/jonathan-millerhttp://www.channel4.com/news/david-cameronhttp://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka
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    (FCO) of lacking the moral backbone to oppose Colombo's bid to host the

    prestigious meeting, on grounds of its dismal human rights record.

    "The UK could and should have taken a more principled stand... in light of

    the continuing serious human rights abuses in Sri Lanka," said members of

    the Foreign Affairs Committee, in a report, published today.

    The report brands the FCO position "timid" and "inconsistent," adding that

    the human rights situation in Sri Lanka called for a "more robust" response.

    It said that despite the FCO's own stated concerns over human rights in Sri

    Lanka, it did not obstruct the proposal that Colombo stage the

    2013 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

    Nor, the report said, did it insist that Sri Lanka's hosting the summit be

    conditional on improvements in human rights.

    'The awkward squad'In 2009, the then Labour government did refuse to back Sri Lanka's bid to

    host CHOGM in 2011 but it didn't object to Colombo staging the event in

    2013. The 2011 CHOGM was held in Australia instead and Britain's

    Conservative-led coalition raised no objections to Sri Lanka hosting the next

    summit.

    Richard Ottoway, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee told Channel 4

    News: "Clearly the British government wasn't happy about it, but clearly a

    decision was being made here and we either become a paid up member of

    the 'awkward squad' - in the minority of one or two - or we go along with it.

    "And they went along with it," he said.

    "Frankly, we think they should have been in the awkward squad minority."

    Last week, the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, said he and his

    foreign affairs minister would be boycotting the meeting over Sri Lanka's

    http://www.parliament.uk/facomhttp://www.chogm2013.lk/http://blogs.channel4.com/miller-on-foreign-affairs/commonwealth-crisis-canada-pulls-sri-lanka-summit/314http://blogs.channel4.com/miller-on-foreign-affairs/commonwealth-crisis-canada-pulls-sri-lanka-summit/314http://www.parliament.uk/facomhttp://www.chogm2013.lk/http://blogs.channel4.com/miller-on-foreign-affairs/commonwealth-crisis-canada-pulls-sri-lanka-summit/314http://blogs.channel4.com/miller-on-foreign-affairs/commonwealth-crisis-canada-pulls-sri-lanka-summit/314
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    human rights record, which he branded "unacceptable."

    Canada remains the only country to have taken such a stand, although in

    May, Buckingham Palace announced that the Queen, who is Head of the

    Commonwealth, would not be attending, despite her having been present

    at every CHOGM for the past 40 years.

    She will be represented, instead, by Prince Charles, who, like David

    Cameron, will find himself shaking hands with the president of the host

    government, some of whose members stand accused of complicity in war

    crimes.

    At least 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the final months of the 27-year-

    long civil war which ended in the defeat of the ethnic Tamil insurgency in

    May 2009.

    One UN report ventures that as many as 70,000 may have died.

    'Serious human rights abuse'Allegations ofserious human rights abuse - including extra jucial killings,

    forced disappearances and torture - have continued unabated since the war

    ended.

    The Foreign Affairs Committee report cites Amnesty International as telling

    its members that "we continue to witness a deterioration of human rights in

    Sri Lanka."

    The British-based charity Freedom from Torture, which assists victims of

    torture from all over the world, told Channel 4 News that torture victims

    from Sri Lanka now top its referral lists.

    Freedom from Torture, the UK charity, describes this as "unprecedented"

    and says it is dealing with cases from as recently as this year.

    In August, following a week-long visit to the island republic, the UN High

    http://blogs.channel4.com/miller-on-foreign-affairs/commonwealth-crisis-canada-pulls-sri-lanka-summit/314http://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-queen-commonwealth-summit-prince-charleshttp://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-queen-commonwealth-summit-prince-charleshttp://www.channel4.com/news/un-sri-lanka-war-crimes-video-needs-investigationhttp://www.channel4.com/news/un-sri-lanka-war-crimes-video-needs-investigationhttp://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-civil-warhttp://www.hrw.org/asia/sri-lankahttp://www.amnesty.org/en/sri-lankahttp://www.freedomfromtorture.org/feature/out_of_the_silence/5979http://blogs.channel4.com/miller-on-foreign-affairs/commonwealth-crisis-canada-pulls-sri-lanka-summit/314http://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-queen-commonwealth-summit-prince-charleshttp://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-queen-commonwealth-summit-prince-charleshttp://www.channel4.com/news/un-sri-lanka-war-crimes-video-needs-investigationhttp://www.channel4.com/news/un-sri-lanka-war-crimes-video-needs-investigationhttp://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-civil-warhttp://www.hrw.org/asia/sri-lankahttp://www.amnesty.org/en/sri-lankahttp://www.freedomfromtorture.org/feature/out_of_the_silence/5979
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    Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, accused the regime of

    President Mahinda Rajapaksa of "heading in an increasingly authoritarian

    direction."

    Democracy, she said, had been undermined and the rule of law eroded. She

    has repeatedly called for an independent international inquiry into the

    allegations of war crimes.

    Senior civil servants from across the Commonwealth begin meeting in

    London today to finalise the agenda for the Colombo meeting, which will

    take place from 15-17 November.

    After CHOGM, Sri Lanka will assume chairmanship of the 53-member

    association for a two-year period.

    "It's bad enough that the Commonwealth has allowed a government

    accused of massive rights abuses and war crimes to host its summit," says

    Brad Adams, Asia director ofHuman Rights Watch.

    "But to effectively put the Commonwealth in the hands of an unrepentant

    government that doesn't meet the Commonwealth's official values on

    democracy or human rights would be the height of hypocrisy."

    New Commonwealth charterIn March, the Queen signed a new Commonwealth charter, which commits

    member states to respect for democracy and human rights.

    The FCO has rejected the Foreign Affairs Committee's criticism, insisting

    that "CHOGM has an opportunity to highlight the need for effective

    commitment to the shared values and human rights for which the

    Commonwealth stands."

    The Colombo summit would put a spotlight on Sri Lanka, it said in a

    statement to Channel 4 News. It dismissed accusations of timidity and

    http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/10/16/commonwealth-don-t-award-sri-lanka-chairmanshiphttp://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-commonwealth-queen-meeting-grotesquehttp://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-commonwealth-queen-meeting-grotesquehttp://www.hrw.org/news/2013/10/16/commonwealth-don-t-award-sri-lanka-chairmanshiphttp://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-commonwealth-queen-meeting-grotesquehttp://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-commonwealth-queen-meeting-grotesque
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    inconsistency, stating: "The FCO has consistently pursued progress in Sri

    Lanka on human rights."

    In the FCO's own report on Human Rights and Democracy last year, it listed

    its concerns in Sri Lanka as including restrictions on freedom of expression,

    attacks on journalists, lawyers and human rights workers and a lack of

    progress on post-war reconciliation.

    When, in May, Downing Street announced that the prime minister and

    foreign secretary would be attending the summit, international human

    rights groups were incredulous, accusing the government of relinquishing

    any leverage it may have had in demanding improvements in human rights.

    One Tamil rights group,Tamils Against Genocide, told Channel 4 News at

    the time that the British government was "collaborating with evil."

    In his first television interview since losing his ministerial portfolio last

    week, former Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt - who had responsibility for

    Britain's foreign relations with Sri Lanka during the period under scrutiny -

    strongly defended the FCO's position.

    "I am not responsible for the decision of the Commonwealth," he told

    Channel 4 News.

    'UK boycott would make no difference'Challenged on why Britain had not objected to Colombo's hosting the 2013

    summit, he said: "There was no point. The Commonwealth was not going to

    change its view. We can object all we like but it wasn't going to make any

    difference."

    Mr Burt, who last visited Sri Lanka as a government minister in February

    this year, dismissed the idea that the UK should have boycotted CHOGM in

    protest, as Canada has.

    http://www.hrdreport.fco.gov.uk/human-rights-in-countries-of-concern/sri-lanka/quarterly-updates-sri-lanka/http://www.hrdreport.fco.gov.uk/human-rights-in-countries-of-concern/sri-lanka/quarterly-updates-sri-lanka/http://www.hrdreport.fco.gov.uk/human-rights-in-countries-of-concern/sri-lanka/quarterly-updates-sri-lanka/http://www.channel4.com/news/cameron-under-fire-over-decision-to-attend-sri-lanka-summithttp://www.channel4.com/news/cameron-under-fire-over-decision-to-attend-sri-lanka-summithttp://www.tamilsagainstgenocide.org/http://www.hrdreport.fco.gov.uk/human-rights-in-countries-of-concern/sri-lanka/quarterly-updates-sri-lanka/http://www.hrdreport.fco.gov.uk/human-rights-in-countries-of-concern/sri-lanka/quarterly-updates-sri-lanka/http://www.hrdreport.fco.gov.uk/human-rights-in-countries-of-concern/sri-lanka/quarterly-updates-sri-lanka/http://www.channel4.com/news/cameron-under-fire-over-decision-to-attend-sri-lanka-summithttp://www.channel4.com/news/cameron-under-fire-over-decision-to-attend-sri-lanka-summithttp://www.tamilsagainstgenocide.org/
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    During his time as minister, Mr Burt did regularly raise human rights

    concerns with members of the Sri Lankan government.

    "[A UK boycott] would have made no difference whatsoever," he said.

    "What you would have seen was a split in the Commonwealth between the

    old colonial powers - the white colonial powers - and the rest."

    He said that once the decision was made to hold the meeting in Sri Lanka, it

    was important that the prime minister and foreign secretary attended so

    that they could highlight human rights concerns.

    The increasing level of concern is itself highlighted in the latest report by a

    human rights organisation into abuse at the hands of the Sri Lankan

    military, in the occupied north and east, home to the bulk of the Tamil and

    Muslim populations.

    In a report published today, the London-based Minority Rights Group says

    that four years after the end of the conflict, Tamil and Muslim women "face

    chronic insecurity" and "human rights abuses and violations ranging from

    sexual violence to land-grabbing."

    The head of Conflict Prevention at MRG, Chris Chapman, said: "It is clear

    that Sri Lanka continues to fail in its duty to protect the human rights of its

    Tamil and Muslim minorities.

    "At the very least, heads of state should show their commitment to the

    basic values of the Commonwealth by not attending the meeting."

    Sri Lanka's foreign minister GL Peiris however said his government has no

    case to answer over the reported deaths of thousands of civilians at the end

    of the country's civil war.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sri-lanka-must-demonstrate-commitment-to-commonwealth-valueshttps://www.gov.uk/government/news/sri-lanka-must-demonstrate-commitment-to-commonwealth-valueshttp://www.minorityrights.org/12117/press-releases/minority-women-in-sri-lanka-facing-increasing-levels-of-sexual-violence-and-insecurity.htmlhttps://www.gov.uk/government/news/sri-lanka-must-demonstrate-commitment-to-commonwealth-valueshttps://www.gov.uk/government/news/sri-lanka-must-demonstrate-commitment-to-commonwealth-valueshttp://www.minorityrights.org/12117/press-releases/minority-women-in-sri-lanka-facing-increasing-levels-of-sexual-violence-and-insecurity.html
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