Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and Deepak Obhrai, the Minister’s Parliamentary Secretary welcomed the decision by India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Mauritius’s Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam not to attend this week’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka.
In a joint statement released Wednesday (November 13), the Ministers said: “The absence of the prime ministers, leaders of two of Sri Lanka’s Indian Ocean neighbours, sends an important message.”
The Ministers added: ““Canada has taken a principled stance by announcing that Prime Minister Harper will not attend CHOGM. Canada has expressed its deep concern over the lack of meaningful reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka following a brutal and bloody civil war. Freedom, human rights and the rule of law continue to be ignored in Sri Lanka, which should cause concern in all Commonwealth nations.”
Canada has long expressed deep concern over the lack of accountability in Sri Lanka following its brutal and bloody civil war. #CHOGM
— John Baird (@Baird) November 13, 2013
Canada’s Deepak Obhrai, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, lays wreath at Elephant Pass cemetery in Sri Lanka (Photo: @DeepakObrhai)
On Wednesday, the English language Sri Lankan paper The Island, under the headline “PM Harper’s rep lays flowers for Tigers” reported on Deepak Obrhai’s laying of a wreath at the Elephant Pass cemetery, and said a senior Sri Lankan government official “alleged the flowers had been for those who died fighting for the LTTE, a proscribed organisation in Canada.”
Canada’s National Post newspaper said Obhrai called the report “grossly false” and that he had laid a wreath in northern Sri Lanka “in memory of all innocent Sri Lankan victims of violence”.
The Commonwealth meeting in Colombo starts on Friday, November 15.
.
More information:
Press release of Ministers Baird and Obhrai – here
National Post – Sri Lanka accuses Canadian government of ‘placating’ Tamil Tigers as row over Commonwealth summit grows – here
The Island – PM Harper’s rep lays flowers for Tigers – here
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2013 website – www.chogm2013.lk
For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.