A spokesperson for Number 10 has said that the Prime Minister David Cameron will call for an international inquiry, if Sri Lanka does not deliver an independent investigation into accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity. "We have consistently called for an independent inquiry into the allegations,” the spokesperson said. “To date, that has not happened. And the PM believes that in the absence of an independent investigation, an international inquiry would be needed.”
Writing in Embassy , Raj Thavaratnasingham, the president of the Canadian Tamil Congress, called on Commonwealth heads to boycott CHOGM next week. The full text of his opinion has been reproduced below: In 2009, the Canadian government refused to support a bid by Sri Lanka to host the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, as a way to pressure the government to allow relief workers access to refugee camps following the end of the Sri Lankan civil war. In 2011, Prime Minister Stephen Harper first mentioned his intent to boycott the biennial summit if the human rights situation in Sri Lanka did not improve.
Tasha Manoranjan, a graduate of Yale Law School and the founder and executive director for People for Equality and Relief in Lanka, has criticised the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies' decision to allow Sri Lanka's ambassador to the UN to speak at the school, calling it 'contradictory to the values that are so actively inculcated in Yale students'. See the full piece entitled 'Genocidaire on Yale’s campus' here . Extracts have been reproduced below. "This Thursday, one of the key officials implicated in the White Flag incident will be speaking at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Sri Lankan Ambassador Palitha Kohona is Sri Lanka’s permanent representative to the United Nations in N.Y., and is the subject of an investigation by the Australian Federal Police. There have also been requests from NGOs to the International Criminal Court that Kohona’s involvement in these extrajudicial killings be investigated." "Kohona is the official representative of an authoritarian and oppressive regime. Yale is disturbingly granting him a platform to whitewash Sri Lanka’s genocide against Tamils on the island and normalize Sri Lanka’s role within the international community."
The Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) in a statement , urged the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to fully boycott the CHOGM due to take place in Sri Lanka and criticised Northern Provincial Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran’s attempts to discourage CHOGM boycotts. The TNPF said that a boycott of CHOGM was necessary to “isolate Sri Lanka from the international community” and that India’s decision as “regional power” was key
Activists from the Balachandran Student Movement held a protest oustide the British High Commission in Chennai on Wednesday, protesting against Prince Charles and Indian Foreign Minister Salaman Kurshid's decision to attend CHOGM. Students gathered outside the High Commission in Chennai, chating slogans that demanded the CHOGM be boycotted and that Prince Charles keeps away from the meet in Colombo. They went on to call for a referendum to establish an independent state in order to safeguard the Tamils of the island from genocide.
The government will prevent any planned protests around the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka next week, according to The Island . When asked whether police would be deployed to break up protests in Colombo or Jaffna, a senior government official told the paper that protestors wouldn’t be allowed to interfere with the schedule of the summit. Other ministerial sources told the paper that the government wouldn’t want any of the heads of states to face the same situation as Mahinda Rajapakse did in London in 2010 and 2012.
A statue of the former Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi was found vandalised on Wednesday morning near the Tirupur district in Tamil Nadu. According to PTI a letter was found nearby calling on the Indian government to boycott the CHOGM later this month.
The Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma has gone on the defensive once again in an interview with Channel 4. Sharma told Jon Snow of the decision to go ahead with CHOGM in Sri Lanka: "In the time to come, I trust that people will see… that indeed very significant advances have been made in the interests of the people of Sri Lanka," See Channel 4's interview video below.
Demonstrations against the Centre over its participation at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka continued in Tamil Nadu today. 13 activists of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) were arrested for allegedly burning effigy of the Minister of State for Commerce after he reportedly made remarks favouring India’s involvement at CHOGM. The Tamil Nadu Federation of Traders Association, a body of retail traders, also announced a strike planned for the November the 12 th . Outlining the reasons behind the strike the head of the Federation, T Bellaiyan, stated, “Sri Lanka...
Two fishermen from Tamil Nadu drowned off the coast of Rameswaram after being chased by the Sri Lankan Navy, reported TOI . Thirty fishermen were arrested, after the Sri Lankan Navy accused them of crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line. According to the injured fishermen, the Navy pelted their boats with stones, and cut all the fishing nets. Rejecting the accusations made by the fishermen, the Sri Lankan Navy spokesperson, Commander Kosala Warnakulasuriya, said : "As a recognised force protecting the territorial waters of Sri Lanka we have arrested 30 fishermen and handed them...