By J. S. Tissainayagam –
J.S. Tissainayagam
In the run up to the Commonwealth Summit in Sri Lanka there is burgeoning media attention on the human rights abuses and suspected war crimes the host nation has tried to conceal. Many hope the attention will keep Sri Lanka accountable and also facilitate progress on human rights and good governance. While media scrutiny during the Summit is indeed important, if the regime in Colombo is to be made accountable for its crimes it is vital that the vigilance continues.
Jurists have pronounced Sri Lanka has violated principles that the 54-member group of former British colonies hold sacrosanct by undermining human rights and the rule of law. This means the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo will ring a death knell for the organisation’s legitimacy. Further, Sri Lanka, by assuming leadership of the body for the next two years, will legitimise violent and authoritarian principles of governance in the Commonwealth.
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Pasel / October 31, 2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karunyan-arulanantham/credible-sri-lankan-war-c_b_4174819.html
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Don Stanley / October 31, 2013
The dusting and white washing that British COLONIALISM is getting by the Rajapaksa regime that constantly bashes the west on its colonial past is astonishing. It is even more astonishing that the folk who write political analysis have not reflected at all on the relevance or history of the Commonwealth of Nations which unlike other world groupings have a geopolitical or security or economic purpose. The only Commonwealth is a Colonial Dinesaur organization that has NO use value in today world apart from being a platform for African and Asian military dictators anxious about their IMAGE, while Britain the former imperial power goes along for the show with the WHITE COMMONWEALTH (Canada, Aussie etc. US though also a former British colony wisely declined to be in the Commonwealth of clowns). Please, this organization needs to be SHUT DOWN and not used to boost third world dictatorships and celebrate British colonialism and imperialism!
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dinuk / November 1, 2013
Quite right, the analysis of CHOGM and what the Commonwealth means and represents, its COLONIAL history and purpose has not be examined by post-colonial scholars at all.
This fellow Tissa sitting comfortably in the US should be doing better analysis than this! Especially today, as there is NO SCHOLARSHIP of worth coming from any of the universities in Sri Lanka or higher education establishments that now only have political stooges..
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Navin / October 31, 2013
Is there no end to those who cry for the downfall of Commonwealth consequent to Sri Lanka assuming its leadership? Long before any of the British colonies violated sacrosanct principles of CW on human rights the British threw them out into the deep space in Iraq, Afghanistan, Diego Garcia and every other place that they colonized!
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Lynx / November 1, 2013
It is indeed amazing how people could be so myopic as to be unable to see the double standards of the USA, UK and others who brand themselves ‘international community’. Supposedly intelligent people publicly hold up these countries knowing very well the human rights abuses and war crimes these countries keep on committing EVEN NOW. It may be any persons right to criticize Sri Lanka’s human rights record. That they hold up other war criminals as examples of high humanitarian values and actually appealing to them to ‘pressure’ Sri Lanka to reform is beyond belief.
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hela / November 1, 2013
Sri Lanka should be commended for it’s strategic approach in opening itself for scrutiny through CHOGM etc while limiting unwanted intervention.
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bganendra / November 1, 2013
When Srilanka becomes the head of the Commonwealth, the membership states also have “the same taste as srilanka”. A GROUP IN A PIGSTIE.
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