A Pre-CHOGM Forum entitled “The Commonwealth in Colombo: Prospects for the 2013 Commonwealth Summit” was held in Senate House last week, while Tamils protested outside against Sri Lankan External Affairs Minister GL Peiris, who was earlier reported to be one of the speakers, but he was replaced by Ambassador Chris Nonis.

One of Malaysia's leading political parties, the Democratic Action Party, has called on the government to boycott the upcoming CHOGM due to the crimes committed by Sri Lanka against Tamils.

DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng, had said in a statement,

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) told its Northern Province Chief Minister, C.V Wigneswaran, to boycott the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) today.

David Cameron  outlined, in a meeting with Burmese opposition leader Aung Suu Kyi, that he would travel to Sri Lanka with a “tough message” for the Rajapaksa regime.

During his meeting with Aung Suu Kyi, explaining his decision to attend CHOGM, he said,

The first Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council, CV Wigneswaran has said in his inaugural speech that people in the south need to understand that the Tamil people have rejected separatism.

Calling on Colombo to keep the Sri Lankan Army in their barracks, Wigneswaran also said the NPC would fully cooperate with the government to receive international assistance to rehabilitate Sri Lankan soldiers and integrate them into civilian life.

India’s External Affairs Minister Salman Kurshid has confirmed his attendance at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka next month, despite a resolution passed unanimously in Tamil Nadu’s assembly, calling for an Indian boycott of the summit.

“I can say I will be there. The issue of Sri Lankan Tamils remains important to us,” Khurshid told Times Now.

The director of the Commission for Justice and Peace of the Catholic Diocese of Jaffna, Father Managalarajah, has written to the Holy See’s representative in Colombo, explaining that development alone has not helped to settle the “basic unresolved issues of the people in the North and East.”

In the letter Mangalarajah describes human rights violations and lack of accountability for the ‘killing of thousands of innocent civilians’ in the final stages of the war, and also details threats and intimidation faced by Tamils wishing to register disappearances or give witness statements.

The Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India, Prasad Kariyawasam, warned that India will be isolated if PM Manmohan Singh boycotts the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

“If PM Singh doesn’t go, we have to think about who it will affect. Who will be isolated? Every other country barring Canada is attending. So those who don’t attend will be in isolation.

In an unprecedented show of political solidarity, parties within the Tamil Nadu state assembly and outside, all backed a resolution brought forward by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, calling for India to boycott the upcoming CHOGM.

The Hindu reported Congress Legislative party leader K. Gopinatha asy saying,

"We welcome the resolution. But we should take care to ensure that our stand in no way affect the Sri Lankan Tamils”.

 A trade union in Sri Lanka’s education sector deplored the withdrawal of allowances granted to teaching assistants in the North-East, today.

According to the Ceylon Teachers Union, teachings assistants were granted Rs. 4000 in the months of July August and September.