Masum Billah
Sri Lanka hosted the 23rd Commonwealth summit with a dazzle of dancers and red-carpeted stairway lined with smiling children to greet leaders from its member states. At a lavish opening ceremony held at the Nelum Pokuna Theater, Britain’s Prince Charles, representing the Queen who is the Head of the Commonwealth, declared open the biennial summit of the 53-member organisation of a third of the world’s population and 20 percent of the global economy. The leaders the Commonwealth nations – Britain, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, Malaysia and attended the summit from 15 to 17 November in an Asian country after 24 years. This was the first big international conference being held in Sri Lanka since the Non-aligned Summit was held in 1976. But the event was shadowed by the allegation of ‘war crimes’ against the present Sri Lankan president Mahindra Rajapakshe. Sri Lanka’s biggest and powerful neighbor India’s Prime Minister did not join the summit. It was also boycotted by Canada and Mauritius. One of the objectives of this summit was to bring investment and trade to Sri Lanka. The Commonwealth Business Forum benefits the host country. The last CBF during the Commonwealth summit in Australia brought some $10 billion worth of investments to that country.
Hundreds of ethnic Tamils protested in the main northern city of Jaffna before British Prime Minister David Cameron’s arrival, demanding statement about the thousands who went missing as the war neared its end in 2009. Protests were banned in Colombo during the conference. “The government should account for the missing, but so far they have not done that,” Tamil lawmaker E. Saravanapavan said by telephone. Elsewhere in Jaffna, about 2,000 protesters were demanding the military to return homes and lands occupied by government forces and declared as a high security zone during the war. “We want to live in our home and land. We can’t live as refugees forever,” said Anthonipillai Pushpa, 48, who said she and her husband have lived in a camp since their home was taken 23 years ago.
Mahinda Rajapaksa called for greater collaboration among the member countries of commonwealth to face the socio economic challenges. He said special emphasis should be given to the eradication of poverty and hunger and ensuring access of the people to basic amenities of life including health and education. But he did not say anything about human rights. Human rights groups and Britain pressed him during the summit which opened investigation of the case of Jaffna. He responded “We are very open, we have nothing to hide. People were being killed for 30 years at least after 2009 we have stopped it. There is no killing in Sri Lanka today.’ He rather asked for credit for banishing the terrorism from the land. At least 100000 people lost their lives in the conflict.
Britain on 13 November asked Sri Lanka to probe allegations that hundreds of men and women had been sexually assaulted by Government forces during and after the islands long ethnic war. He said he was ready to meet Cameron to discuss allegation that up to 40.000 civilians were killed by Sri Lankan forces at the closing stages of the 37-year conflict in the island’s north. The Sri Lankan civil war started in 1983 for a variety of socio-economic and political reasons. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE) fought a terrorist war to establish a separate homeland in the north and east of the country. In May 2009 Sri Lankan Government won the war and LTTE’s legendary leader Velupillai Pravakaran was killed. The British Prime Minister David Cameron commented thus, “We can either bury our head in the sand, ignore the different issues and essentially give in to those who think the commonwealth is no longer relevant. Or we cause this as an opportunity to come together and restate why our values matter. I am deeply committed to the Commonwealth and what at its best stand for. Not just out of a sense of tradition and obligation-but of belief. The belief in political freedom which has underpinned the organisation for almost sixty-five years is as relevant now as it was at the time of London Declaration. Four years on from the end of the civil war and defeat of the Tamil Tigers, a brutal terrorist organisation there has been nowhere near enough improvement.
We need to see more progress, genuine freedom of expression and a free media, an end to the intimidation of journals and human rights defenders action to stamp out torture, demilitarisation of the north and reconciliation between communities.”Sri Lanka issued visas to hundreds of foreign journalists before the summit, and invited them to visit any part of the country to witness progress on post-war reconstruction. However, pro-government protesters stopped reporters from Britain’s Channel 4, which has run a series of documentaries alleging atrocities and war crimes. Indian Prime Minister Manmoham Singh probably bowed to pressure from political groups in the Southern state of Tamil Nadu to boycott the event. The state of Tamil Nadu in India has always been open in its support of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. With the Indian general elections coming up in May 2014, Mr Singh probably did not wish to upset the Tamil voters who make up about 4 crores (40 million). Canadian Prime Minister Stephan Harper also declined attending the meeting. He said a lack of accountability for human rights abuses “during and after the civil war is unacceptable.” The largest expatriate Sri Lankan Tamil community resides in Canada. There have also been numerous stories of torture and sexual assault coming out of Sri Lanka’s prisons and detention centres. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been urged to investigate these allegations of war crimes and torture.
In response to the criticism Rajapahsha set up the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission which was a farce and a blatant attempt by the government to silence the international community’s accusations of war crimes. The Sri Lankan government however failed to implement the recommendations of its own reconciliation commission. The Sinhalese have every right to establish peace and ensure prosperity of the nation. On the other hand, Tamils complain of oppression by the majority Sinhalese. So, they started armed struggle against the government. Both their language was only arms and terrorism.
Rajapakshe was defensive. His government must give enough compensation to the Tamils who suffered losses in the war. The Commonwealth must do something about it. Suspension from the Commonwealth is the most severe form of punishment meted out by the Commonwealth at times. Four countries were suspended in the past including Pakistan, Nigeria, Fiji and Zimbabwe. Fiji is currently on suspension for the second time after its refusal to hold elections. The Commonwealth must give importance to human rights as well as the prosperity of its member states. Is the Commonwealth in the danger of becoming obsolete and failing in its duty to uphold “core values?” This is a pertinent question which should be addressed properly to uphold the relevance the Commonwealth.
(The writer is program manager, BRAC Education Program and vice-president: Bangladesh English Language Teachers Association ( BELTA)
