Federal Shipping Minister defends India’s participation at CHOGM 2013
Tuesday, 19 November 2013 00:03
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Reuters/Chennai: Federal Shipping Minister G.K. Vasan on Monday (November 18) lauded India’s participation at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo and said that Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid must have discussed key concerns of Tamils with participating leaders.
Earlier on 16 November, CHOGM leaders held an informal summit in Colombo to discuss the group of nations’ future.
The grouping of mostly former British colonies gathered at a waterfront resort in the capital on the second day of the biennial summit that has brought with it intense scrutiny of Sri Lanka’s human rights record four years after the civil war ended. Vasan said that Khurshid must have given a clear message to Sri Lanka on the 13th Amendment and the need for latter to fulfill its commitment to India.
“I am justifying India’s stand that Salman Khurshid had gone to Sri Lanka with a high level team and I am sure he would have had the opportunity to talk to all the countries, who were present there regarding the problems of our Tamil people in Sri Lanka and he would have definitely shared India’s long pending demand to Sri Lanka which has not been fulfilled, which is the 13th amendment which has to be given to the Tamil people. All rights given to Sinhalese have to be given to our Tamil people there,” said Vasan.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa had hoped the 15 to 17 November meeting, which two heads of state have boycotted, would prove an advertisement for progress and economic growth in the island state of 21 million off India’s southern tip.
Instead the summit has been overshadowed by allegations of State-sponsored rape and torture, and political pressure, which has also come from British Prime Minister David Cameron who has vowed to press Sri Lanka on its human rights record.
Meanwhile, spokesperson of regional Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party, T. K. S. Elangovan said that his party wants the federal government to act in a way that is helpful to the Tamil population in Sri Lanka.
“For the Government of India, we want the Government to act in a way that it is helpful to the people, Tamils living in the island. As far as the resolution is concerned, it is for the Government of India and not for the Congress party (alone), firstly. That doesn’t mean that this has something to do with the alliance. See, alliance is a different issue and we will take decision at the appropriate time,” said Elangovan.
Rajapaksa has strongly defended his Government’s record, saying this week it had “nothing to hide”.
Separatist Tamil rebels battled Government forces for 26 years until an Army offensive crushed them in 2009.
A UN panel has said around 40,000 mainly Tamil civilians died in the final months of the offensive. Both sides committed atrocities but Army shelling killed most victims, it concluded.
