Please see below extracts of an opinion by Philip Collins written for The Times. See here for article in full.
The Rajapaksa regime is happy to butcher its citizens. Britain should have joined the summit boycott.
"This is a regime of unspeakable brutality whose original ethnic hatred has transmuted into a love of power and a ruthless happiness to butcher anyone who stands in the way. This is a regime from the dreams of tyranny.
"This is no country for any summit of a reputable international body such as the Commonwealth. This is no place for a British Prime Minister or heir to the throne to visit. Foreign policy sometimes means dialogue with the deranged but there has to be a line and the Sri Lankan Government long ago crossed over to the darker side.
"The evidence of slaughter is irrefutable. A United Nations panel of experts concluded that the henchmen of the Government were guilty of torture and the rape of rebel supporters. Almost 6,000 victims of enforced disappearances are still unaccounted for.
"In May 2010 the International Crisis Group gathered eyewitness statements, hundreds of photographs, video, satellite images and electronic communications that all told the tale of the intentional shelling of civilians, hospitals and humanitarian operations by the Sri Lankan armed forces. There is reliable evidence too that the Sri Lankan military withheld food, water, and medicine in war zones.
"The film No Fire Zone (so-called after the Government shepherded civilians into safe zones and then subjected them to barrage) by Callum Macrae and Zoe Sale features harrowing tales told by survivors of the worst war crimes, recorded on small cameras and mobile phones. They document sexual violence, summary execution, torture. It is close to unwatchable and it is quite unmissable. The superb documentary work done by Jonathan Miller for Channel 4, which David Cameron watched before he left for Sri Lanka, has also exhibited the terrible anger of the Rajapaksa Government.
"The Sri Lankan Government has furiously and ludicrously denied all claims that its forces committed atrocities. In June 2010 Mr Rajapaksa insisted that his soldiers never killed a single civilian. “Our troops”, he said, laughably, “carried a gun in one hand and a copy of the human rights charter in the other.”
"There is no question at all about what is going on. After a visit in August of this year, the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner, Navi Pillay, concluded that Sri Lanka is “heading in an increasingly authoritarian direction”.
"There is, nonetheless, a case for ignoring all this and going along to the Commonwealth summit. David Cameron will be the first foreign leader to visit the northern province since Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948. He will use his time with President Rajapaksa to demand that Sri Lanka establish a commission to investigate war crimes, human rights abuses and the constant intimidation of journalists.
"This is right. but entirely forlorn. Mr Rajapaksa has repeatedly refused to do any such thing and will refuse once more. Sri Lanka does not recognise the International Criminal Court and there is no chance of the UN marshalling the votes to force a war crimes commission.
"It would be better if the Prime Minister had followed the example set by his counterparts in Canada and India and stayed at home. Two years ago Sri Lanka was denied the right to hold the Commonwealth Heads of Government summit. Now, as summit host, Mr Rajapaksa will travel the globe as the Commonwealth’s official face for the next two years.
"There is no prospect that Mr Rajapaksa can be cajoled into democratic decency. Tyrannies repress their people by definition. Terror is their modus operandi. We might as well turn up in Colombo and ask for metamorphosis from one species to another. We really ought not to offer the cloak of respectability to such a dismal tyrant as this."