British PM defends decision to attend CHOGM in Parliament
Wednesday, 20 November 2013 11:06
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London: Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron today defended his decision to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka saying that his visit to the island’s war-torn north helped to shine a global spotlight on Sri Lanka’s human right issue.
Responding to the criticism that he did not followed Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper and boycott the summit in Sri Lanka, Cameron said he was determined to use the presence of the Commonwealth and his own visit to shine a global spotlight on the situation in Sri Lanka.
“I became the first foreign leader to visit the north of the country since independence in 1948 and, by taking the media with me, I gave the local population the chance to be heard by an international audience,” he told the UK Parliament.
Describing his visit to the North Cameron said he pressed for credible, transparent and independent investigations into alleged war crimes during his meeting with President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
“I made it clear to him that if those investigations were not begun properly by March, I would use our position on the United Nations Human Rights Council to work with the UN Human Rights Commissioner and call for an international inquiry,” Cameron told the UK lawmakers.
“We should also show proper respect for the fact that Sri Lanka suffered almost three decades of bloody civil conflict and that recovery and reconciliation take time. But I made it clear to President Rajapaksa that he now has a real opportunity, through magnanimity and reform, to build a successful, inclusive and prosperous future for his country, working in partnership with the newly-elected Chief Minister of the Northern Province.
I very much hope that he seizes that opportunity,” the PM said.
He said the reconciliation in Sri Lanka will happen only by dealing with the issues and not ignoring them.
Cameron said he had a choice at this summit: to stay away and allow President Rajapaksa to set the agenda he wanted, or to go and shape the agenda by advancing UK’s interests with its Commonwealth partners and shining a spotlight on the international concerns about Sri Lanka.
“I chose to go and stand up for our values and to do all I could to advance them. I believe that that was the right decision for Sri Lanka, for the Commonwealth and for Britain,” he said.
Responding to Cameron’s statement, Labour Party leader, Ed Miliband said when Cameron attended the 2011 summit he could have brought together a coalition to block Sri Lanka’s hosting the Commonwealth summit in 2013.
Miliband, pointing out that the Sri Lankan President has already rejected the UK Prime Minister’s call for an independent inquiry just a day after he made the call, asked what will be the consequences if the Sri Lankan Government continues to ignore the international commitments.
Cameron shot back at the Labour Party leader saying that the Labour party agreed to the Commonwealth conference taking place in Sri Lanka and criticising his attendance now “breaks new records for opportunism and double-speak”.
“How do we advance free trade if we are not there? How do we stand up for issues such as tax, transparency, tackling poverty, and preventing sexual violence in conflict? How do we do all that from 4,000 miles away?” Cameron asked.
He said visiting the north and raising these issues, human rights, and questions about land reform, reconciliation, and investigations, were top of mind for the press, the media, and everyone in Sri Lanka in a way that they simply would not have been.
Regarding Sri Lanka chairing the Commonwealth for the next two years Cameron pointed out that the Commonwealth is a multilateral organisation of which the UK is a leading member and the Queen is the head and once something has been agreed, it is very difficult to unblock it. Once the decision was made in 2011 that Sri Lanka would host the 2013 CHOGM, Sri Lanka became the chair for the next two years.
Cameron said the Sri Lankan Government needed to understand that the issue was not going to go away, and if Sri Lanka did not hold an independent inquiry, the pressure for an international inquiry would grow. “Using the UN human rights machinery is the right way to do that.”
