http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=38185


Tigers won’t last long if CHOGM 2011 declaration is implemented – GLNovember 1, 2011, 10:05 pm
By Shamindra Ferdinando
External Affairs Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris yesterday said that Sri Lanka expected tangible action against those engaged in criminal activities within the Commonwealth grouping. Minister Peiris said that those groups should be put out of action not as a favour to Sri Lanka, but their own well being.
The nine-nation CMAG, tasked with dealing with the full range of serious or persistent violations of Commonwealth values, includes Canada and Australia, where LTTE front organisations operate freely. Other members of the CMAG are Bangladesh, Jamaica, the Maldives, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago and Vanuatu.
Prof. Peiris was responding to a query whether the government would pressure Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand in line with the CHOGM 2011 agreement to ensure stern action against those operating outside the law.
Prof. Peiris was briefing the media having returned from the CHOGM 2011 summit.
Referring to the on-going police and judicial action by the Netherlands against the LTTE, Prof. Peiris said that the LTTE was very active in some Commonwealth countries. The outfit was active in the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in spite of it being a proscribed organisation in 32 countries, including the 27-member EU grouping, he said.
Prof. Peiris alleged that a section of the international media, including the Australian press had played a critical role in the anti-Sri Lankan campaign in the run-up to the inauguration of the CHOGM summit on Oct. 28. He described Sri Lanka’s triumph as an unparalleled achievement for the country’s foreign policy and diplomacy.
Asked whether Eminent Persons Group’s proposal for a Commissioner for Democracy, the Rule of Law and Human Rights could be revived, though it didn’t appeal to member states at the CHOGM 2011, Prof. Peiris said that it would never succeed. He said that 90 per cent of Commonwealth members had opposed the proposal at the CHOGM 2011 and he was sure it wouldn’t be a reality.
The minister went on to describe the proposed HR watchdog as an intrusive body, which would never be acceptable to the vast majority of the grouping.
Both India and South Africa rejected the HR watchdog in spite of UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand throwing their weight behind the move.