Tamil Justice

ABC – Rudd plays careful hand at CHOGM

Behind the scenes, Mr Rudd has led a push to stop Sri Lanka from hosting the next summit.

Many leaders are concerned about Sri Lanka’s human rights record in the war against Tamil separatists and feared it would lead to a boycott of the next meeting.

The ABC has been told that Mr Rudd has held at least three bilateral meetings with Sri Lanka’s President and Prime Minister in Trinidad, in order to convince them to abandon their hosting plans.

UK Guardian - Commonwealth vetoes Sri Lanka bid to hold 2011 gathering

Sri Lanka has been blocked from hosting the next meeting of Commonwealth leaders in protest at Colombo’s military repression against the Tamil population earlier this year.

Australia will instead host the next biennial Commonwealth heads of government meeting in 2011 after Canberra and London joined forces to block the Sri Lankan bid.

The decision, made at the summit in Trinidad and Tobago over the weekend, is a victory for Gordon Brown and his Australian counterpart, Kevin Rudd.

AAP – Australia to host 2011 CHOGM

Australia will host the 2011 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

The decision was made on Saturday at the CHOGM currently underway in Trinidad and Tobago.

Sources said an official announcement was expected to be made on Sunday.

Sri Lanka had been lobbying to host the 2011 CHOGM but it is believed it will now host the 2013 meeting.

CHOGM, a biennial summit involving 53 leaders from Commonwealth nations, traditionally discusses issues relevant largely to the Commonwealth.

CHOGM critics have questioned the summit’s relevance, including a damning report released by the British-based Royal Commonwealth Society last week that suggested the once-powerful alliance was fading.

But the importance of this year’s event reaches far beyond the former British empire.

Trinidad’s Prime Minister, Patrick Manning, invited French President Nicholas Sarkozy, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Danish Prime Minister Lars Rasmussen to the CHOGM discussion table.

The global interest in this year’s CHOGM lies in its timing, as the last major gathering of leaders before the December 7-18 United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen.

Queen Elizabeth II traditionally opens the biennial event, which attracts hundreds of government officials and media representatives from around the world.

Australia has previously hosted CHOGM twice, most recently at Coolum in Queensland in 2002 (that meeting was postponed from October 2001). Melbourne hosted the CHOGM in 1981.

The first CHOGM was held in Singapore in 1971. Previously, meetings were held under the banners of Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conferences (from 1944) and Imperial Conferences.

PR by The Green Party of NZ (26 Nov) – CHOGM must address human rights – Greens

New Zealand must use the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting to put pressure on Sri Lanka over its shameful human rights record, the Green Party’s Foreign Affairs spokesperson Keith Locke said today.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has told media that the situation in Sri Lanka will be discussed at CHOGM with an emphasis on how the international community can assist, those caught up in the humanitarian disaster in the North of Sri Lanka.

“New Zealand must support Stephen Smith who has said he will be raising the human rights issues and the need for political reconciliation in Sri Lanka,” said Mr Locke.

“The Sri Lankan Government must be taken to task for violating the Commonwealth’s declaration on human rights. Around 200,000 Tamils are still in detention camps and prevented from returning to their homes – in gross violation of international humanitarian law.

“The Commonwealth’s credibility is at stake if it doesn’t address the current plight of Tamil people in Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the civil war.

“In good conscience, we can’t push for strong Commonwealth pressure on Fiji’s military Government, yet do nothing about the situation facing Tamils in Sri Lanka.”

Mr Locke also considers Commonwealth action is necessary to address the epidemic of Sri Lankan boat people fleeing repression in Sri Lanka.

“The Green Party believes New Zealand should respond positively to Australia’s call for New Zealand to take some of the Sri Lankan asylum seekers now being processed by United Nations refugee teams.

“Our Government should reassure Australian Immigration Minister Chris Evans over his comment that New Zealand ’should share some of the burden of resettling the Sri Lankan refugees.’

“We should tell Senator Evans that New Zealand will live up to its ANZAC responsibilities and take some of the refugees,” said Mr Locke.

Green Party NZ – Sri Lankan asylum seekers and the New Zealand response

A week ago, on behalf of the Green Party, I sent the Minister of Immigration, Jonathan Coleman, an email suggesting that New Zealand help Australia solve its boat people crisis. The crisis came to a head because of 78 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees on an Australian customs ship, the Oceanic Viking, off the Indonesian island of Bintan, who wanted to go to Australia. There was another group of Tamils on an Indonesian naval ship off Java. I proposed a repeat of what we did back in 2001 when we helped Australia by taking 131 Afghans who had been picked out of the sea off Australia by the Norwegian boat, the Tampa. New Zealand won plaudits for that humanitarian action. Over the years fair-minded Australians have said that it showed that our Government was more caring than theirs. Former Prime Minister John Howard used the Tampa incident to whip up anti-refugee sentiment and win the 2001 election. Most New Zealanders are now proud of what we did in 2001 and proud of how well some of those Afghan refugees, known as the Tampa boys, have done academically and in sport. More

Toronto Star -Canada opposes Sri Lanka’s bid to host Commonwealth

Guardian – UK wants to prevent Sri Lanka from hosting Commonwealth summit

Reuters South Africa – Government will oppose Sri Lanka hosting talks

Times Online – Gordon Brown will not back Sri Lanka’s bid to host Commonwealth summit

AAP – Smith urges Sri Lankans to reconcile 

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says he has discussed the flow of refugees to Australia with Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama.

Mr Smith has been in Trinidad this week ahead of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s arrival for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) – a biennial summit involving 53 leaders from Commonwealth nations.

“Our strong view, which I relayed to Foreign Minister Mr Bogollagama, that Sri Lanka not just has to win the military battle, but win the peace,” Mr Smith said.

“There needs to be a process of reconciliation and healing so far as Sri Lanka is concerned so all members of the Sri Lankan community believe they have a role and say in the future of Sri Lanka.”

AAP – CHOGM to address Sri Lanka refugee issue

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith will sound out his Commonwealth counterparts on ways to help stem the flow of refugees from Sri Lanka.

Mr Smith is travelling to Trinidad and Tobago for a meeting of foreign ministers beginning on Tuesday that will prepare the ground for this week’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Port of Spain.

Along with climate change and the global economy, the refugee issue is on CHOGM’s agenda on the 60th anniversary of the Commonwealth.

Mr Smith earlier this month signed a memorandum of understanding with fellow Commonwealth member Sri Lanka as part of efforts to clamp down on people smuggling from the troubled island nation. More

Amnesty Document – Sri Lanka : Open letter to Heads of Government attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, November 23-26 2009, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago

Dear Heads of Government

On the occasion of the forthcoming meeting of Commonwealth Heads of Government, Amnesty International would like to draw your attention to recent developments in Sri Lanka, and urge you to raise concerns regarding the human rights situation in that country with your Sri Lankan counterparts. In particular, we wish to alert you to continuing serious problems affecting the safety and dignity of Sri Lankans displaced by armed conflict. We also ask you to support our calls for greater accountability for abuses of human rights and humanitarian law suffered by Sri Lankan civilians.

Releases from Sri Lanka’s camps for internally displaced persons have accelerated, but six months after the end of the war, Sri Lanka continues to confine people who fled fighting in closed displacement camps in uncomfortable and sometimes hazardous conditions. Camp shelters have deteriorated as Sri Lanka has entered the rainy season, and the UN reports that funds for shelter repair are running out. Amnesty International has a global campaign, “Unlock the Camps”, (see http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/unlock-camps-sri-lanka-20090807), calling on the Sri Lankan government to end its policy of forcibly confining people to camps, which amounts to arbitrary detention. More

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2009

Secretary-General’s Media Briefing

Monday, 9th November 2009

Raymond Lloyd (The Parity Democrat):

My second question is:

what measures will be taken at the CHOGM in Port of Spain short of suspension of membership to encourage the government of Sri Lanka to release the tens of thousands of Tamil citizens still held in army camps, not least because the CHOGM coincides with the annual Tamil remembrance day on 27th November 2009.

Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma:

As for Sri Lanka, as far as our engagement with Sri Lanka is concerned, it follows the guidelines given to us, which is to convey to them the various concerns that are remitted to us in the Commonwealth, according to the Millbrook Plan of Action. This is what we have been doing. To convey our concern at the time the humanitarian situation arose, three or four statements have been issued by me.

We won’t be covering this extensively – however these developments should make the CHOGM meeting in Tabago and Trinadad  at the end of this month very interesting.

The Australian – Fiji expels high commissioner

… Australian authorities also have rejected a suggestion that seven Sri Lankan judges had to embark on a marathon flight to Fiji via Korea to avoid travel bans.

Australian authorities say the Sri Lankans, who had been recruited by Justice Gates, withdrew their visa applications and flew to Fiji via Korea before being told their applications had been approved because they had not yet taken office in Fiji.

When outlining the two incidents on Sunday, Justice Gates accused Australia of interfering in the judiciary of a Commonwealth country because Australian consular officials had counselled the Sri Lankans against working in Fiji.

Australian officials had earlier made a low-key approach to Sri Lanka’s judicial authorities informing them that the integrity and independence of the Fiji bench was in doubt.

Sydney Morning Herald – Angry Fiji expels high commissioners