Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Chairpersonship of the Commonwealth again drew critical attention this week in the wake of his government’s categorical refusal to cooperate with the UN investigation into its mass atrocities and rights abuses

On Thursday the matter was raised in Britain’s parliament when Foreign Secretary William Hague was asked by his opposition counterpart Douglas Alexander whether, in the light of the UN probe, he had asked President Rajapaksa to resign as Chairperson.

Mr Hague replied any decision on the Chair-in-Office role is for all Commonwealth Heads of Government to take by consensus.

He said Britain “fully supports” the investigation by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights authorised in a UN Human Rights Council resolution passed on March 27 and co-sponsored by Britain.

Also Thursday, a senior scholar at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, warned Sri Lanka’s chairing the Commonwealth was ‘straining’ the 53-member organisation.

Sir Ronald Sanders, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute and a former Caribbean diplomat, said in an article on the institution’s website:

“The predicament for the Commonwealth is that President Mahinda Rajapaksa is the current Chairman-in-Office of the association, yet his government is refusing to accept and co-operate with a UN-mandated investigation.

“Such a refusal is not consistent with the ‘values-based’ organisation that the Commonwealth claims it is in numerous declarations that proclaim its commitment to principles, including ‘the rule of international law’.

“If the Commonwealth does not take some form of action about this development with the Sri Lankan government, it will be further criticised as hypocritical and meaningless."

Sir Sanders noted nine commonwealth countries had voted on the UN resolution in March – three in favour (Sierra Leone, Britain and Botswana), 3 against (Kenya, Maldives and Pakistan), and 3 abstaining (India, Namibia and South Africa).

He said body that could take up the matter is the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), a group of nine rotating foreign ministers deemed a ‘custodian of the Commonwealth’s fundamental values and principles’, but which includes Sri Lanka’s foreign minister, Professor G L Peiris.

“So far CMAG has shied away from dealing with the Sri Lanka matter on the basis that there has been ‘no serious or persistent violations’ of Commonwealth fundamental values – an assertion that has stunned civil society organisations and some Commonwealth governments."

The Commonwealth “has already been heavily criticised for failing to deal with the Sri Lankan government’s unconstitutional impeachment of the Chief Justice and to investigate alleged attacks on journalists, human rights defenders, members of religious minority groups and other members of civil society, as well as on temples, mosques and churches,” he said.