GL slams UK, Canada for raising Lanka at C’wealth Ministers meet
Tuesday, 1 October 2013 00:51
-
- {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris has slammed Canada and the United Kingdom for using the Commonwealth Foreign Ministers meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York last Thursday to criticise Sri Lanka’s internal affairs.
Issuing a media release from New York where Minister Peiris is part of the Presidential Delegation to the 68th Session of the UN General Assembly, he said the action to inappropriately use the annual Commonwealth Foreign Affairs Ministers’ Meeting (CFAMM) as a platform to bring attention on internal issues related to Sri Lanka, the Foreign Ministers of Canada and UK had broken all norms and practice of the Commonwealth.
“The British delegation calling to question the decision of the Heads of Government to hold the CHOGM in Sri Lanka is shocking and the Minister pointed out that Sri Lanka
upholds core Commonwealth values, and stated that equal treatment of all member states is imperative,” Minister Peiris said in his media release.
The Foreign Ministers Meeting is a forum meant to discuss issues relating to the wider Commonwealth, he said.
Reacting to comments made on Sri Lanka at the meeting by these two countries, Minister Peiris emphasised that being continuously critical, particularly urging repetitively on the need for concrete developments on the implementation of the LLRC recommendations, was grossly unfair.
“In this regard he observed that the least that could be done was to take into account the gravity of the challenges presented, especially in the context of the brief period since the end of the thirty year armed conflict,” the media release said.
“In Canada’s singularly misplaced quest to strive for punitive measures against Sri Lanka through the organisation, action was initiated to the extent of externalising Commonwealth processes which is unprecedented. Therefore consensual support did not materialise within the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG). Such attempts to politicise the Commonwealth are deplorable,” the Minister said.
While outlining the developments in the post conflict phase, Minister Peiris encouraged all member countries to attend CHOGM and experience for themselves the ground situation. Endorsing the remarks by the Australian Chair that it is not the practice of the Commonwealth to use the forum of the Foreign Affairs Ministers’ Meeting to discuss the internal issues of member countries, he stated that Sri Lanka looks forward to engaging with member countries bilaterally on relevant issues, as is being done with the Commonwealth Secretariat.
