{"id":42846,"date":"2012-05-26T20:46:55","date_gmt":"2012-05-26T20:46:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=42846"},"modified":"2012-06-02T23:53:34","modified_gmt":"2012-06-02T23:53:34","slug":"tyrants-and-the-queen-she-is-out-of-touch-with-the-humanitarian-values","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/tyrants-and-the-queen-she-is-out-of-touch-with-the-humanitarian-values\/","title":{"rendered":"Tyrants And The Queen: She Is Out Of Touch With The Humanitarian Values"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Uvindu Kurukulasuriya<\/a><\/span>\u00a0–<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Uvindu Kurukulasuriya<\/p><\/div>\n

The Queen has come under criticism for inviting tyrants to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee. Last week it was about Middle Eastern monarchs. Swazilanders and Bahrainians joined human rights campaigners in a protest on Friday 18, May outside Buckingham Palace against the invitations to royal dictators from around the world to the Queen\u2019s Diamond Jubilee dinner.
\nHuman rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has condemned the Queen\u2019s decision to invite \u201cdictator monarchs\u201d to her Diamond Jubilee celebrations this. She will host the royal autocrats for lunch at Windsor Castle and for dinner at Buckingham Palace.
\n\u201cIt is outrageous that the Queen has invited royal tyrants to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee. She should not host the monarchs of countries such as Brunei, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Swaziland and United Arab Emirates. All of them preside over regimes that abuse human rights,\u201d said Peter Tatchell, Director of the human rights campaign group, the Peter Tatchell Foundation.
\n\u201cInviting blood-stained despots brings shame to our monarchy and tarnishes the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. It is a kick in the teeth to pro-democracy campaigners and political prisoners in these totalitarian royal regimes. The invitations should be withdrawn immediately, as a mark of respect for those who have been murdered, arrested, jailed and tortured,\u201d he added.
\nThis week a protest was launched against inviting Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. \u201cThe celebrations will be long, grand and varied, and one of the flagship events will be a private luncheon in London on the 6th of June with the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary \u2026 and a war criminal\u2026The President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, a man against whom the UN have found credible allegations of responsibility for the murder of civilians, and who leads a government that oversaw the disappearance of 32 people this March alone, will join the Queen and other heads of state at the taxpayer-funded meal. Make sure this doesn\u2019t happen,\u201d the Campaign Director UK based \u2018Sri Lanka Campaign\u2019 said.
\nGiving an interview to this writer he said, \u201cThe Queen, the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary and President Rajapaksa would be in attendance as would other commonwealth heads of state \u2013 but we haven\u2019t been told who. Indeed they have made very little information available about this lunch and we have had to find things out the hard way.\u201d
\n\u201cWe also don\u2019t know exactly how much the lunch itself will cost. We have been told that the Jubilee celebrations will cost a total of around \u00a312 million to the taxpayer and potentially about \u00a31.3 billion to the economy in total \u2013 mostly as a result of the extra holidays. However these figures don\u2019t include the costs of security, policing and logistical arrangements. For Mahinda\u2019s visit this will be covered by the British at a direct cost to the British taxpayer and could be the biggest direct cost.\u201d
\nThe situation is further complicated by the fact that the Queen, the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary and President Rajapaksa will all be at this lunch as guests of the Secretary General of the Commonwealth and so it is likely that the Commonwealth Secretariat will pay a share \u2013 perhaps most or all \u2013 of the non policing costs. This is taxpayers\u2019 money too of course \u2013 the money of taxpayers in all Commonwealth nations. The Commonwealth Secretariat has a budget of \u00a315 million but doesn\u2019t specify how much they spend on hospitality. All this money comes from Commonwealth nations (i.e. taxpayers) based upon their ability to pay. For example, that the UK will bear 31percent of the cost, Sri Lanka 1 percent and India 4 percent.
\n\u201cSo we know it\u2019s a very expensive lunch with lots of security costs which is being funded by the taxpayer but we don\u2019t know how much it will cost and whether it is the UK taxpayer or all Commonwealth taxpayers \u2013 and they are not making that information available,\u201d he said.
\nPeter Tatchell said, \u201cBuckingham Palace\u2019s refusal to confirm the guest list is arrogant and anti-democratic. As the Head of State of a democratic nation, the Queen should be transparent and accountable to the public. This secrecy and evasion is the enemy of democracy. The vast majority of the British people would not want the Queen to wine and dine these vile dictators.\u201d
\n\u201cI should also add that while we did mention the fact that it is a taxpayer funded lunch and we didn\u2019t think that was an appropriate use of funds (either UK funds or Commonwealth funds) we have other, ethical objections to the lunch as well,\u201d added the Campaign Director \u2018Sri Lanka Campaign\u2019. Edward Mortimer, the Chairperson of the Sri Lanka Campaign, who is a former speechwriter to Kofi Annan said, \u201cIn the light of the credible allegations of war crimes against the Sri Lankan President, and the brutality of his regime towards minorities, human rights defenders, and independent journalists, we would urge the Queen not to break bread with him.\u201d \u201cMany in the international community have been working hard to bring the Sri Lankan Government back towards respect for human rights and the rule of law. At this moment it is absolutely vital that we keep the pressure on; this is not the moment for treating the President of Sri Lanka to pomp and pageantry,\u201d he added.
\nIt is clear that the Human Rights community in UK is going to use this opportunity to protest against world leaders presiding over a variety of human rights abuses such as war crimes, detention without trial, torture, the denial of free speech, restrictions on press freedom, discrimination against women, oppression of minority faiths, homophobic persecution, ill-treatment of guest workers and the violent suppression of peaceful protests. \u201cThe invitations are a shocking misjudgement. They show the Queen is out of touch with the humanitarian values of most British people. She\u2019s putting royalty before human rights,\u201d said Peter Tatchell. The Sri Lanka Campaign is of the opinion that the Royal household is very sensitive to negative publicity around the jubilee. The British Royal Family has recently introduced ways for you to give them people\u2019s opinions. The Sri Lanka Campaign wants people to use these channels such as Queen\u2019s Twitter @British Monarchy, Facebook, \u2018The British Monarchy\u2019 and other websites to tell them that the Queen should not be celebrating her jubilee in the company of war criminals.
\n\u201cThere is a good chance that this will be successful but, even if he does come, it is important that we register our strong objection. At least President Mahinda will not be able to portray his visit as a public relations triumph,\u201d the Campaign said
\nuvindu@journalist.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":5044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,2187,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-most-popular","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nTyrants And The Queen: She Is Out Of Touch With The Humanitarian Values - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/tyrants-and-the-queen-she-is-out-of-touch-with-the-humanitarian-values\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tyrants And The Queen: She Is Out Of Touch With The Humanitarian Values - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/tyrants-and-the-queen-she-is-out-of-touch-with-the-humanitarian-values\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-05-26T20:46:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-06-02T23:53:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/uvindu1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"101\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"97\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/tyrants-and-the-queen-she-is-out-of-touch-with-the-humanitarian-values\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/tyrants-and-the-queen-she-is-out-of-touch-with-the-humanitarian-values\/\",\"name\":\"Tyrants And The Queen: She Is Out Of Touch With The Humanitarian Values - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/tyrants-and-the-queen-she-is-out-of-touch-with-the-humanitarian-values\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/tyrants-and-the-queen-she-is-out-of-touch-with-the-humanitarian-values\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/uvindu1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-26T20:46:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-06-02T23:53:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/tyrants-and-the-queen-she-is-out-of-touch-with-the-humanitarian-values\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/tyrants-and-the-queen-she-is-out-of-touch-with-the-humanitarian-values\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/tyrants-and-the-queen-she-is-out-of-touch-with-the-humanitarian-values\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/uvindu1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/uvindu1.jpg\",\"width\":\"101\",\"height\":\"97\",\"caption\":\"Uvindu Kurukulasuriya\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/tyrants-and-the-queen-she-is-out-of-touch-with-the-humanitarian-values\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Tyrants And The Queen: She Is Out Of Touch With The Humanitarian Values\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\",\"name\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tyrants And The Queen: She Is Out Of Touch With The Humanitarian Values - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/tyrants-and-the-queen-she-is-out-of-touch-with-the-humanitarian-values\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tyrants And The Queen: She Is Out Of Touch With The Humanitarian Values - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[…]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/tyrants-and-the-queen-she-is-out-of-touch-with-the-humanitarian-values\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2012-05-26T20:46:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-06-02T23:53:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":101,"height":97,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/uvindu1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/tyrants-and-the-queen-she-is-out-of-touch-with-the-humanitarian-values\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/tyrants-and-the-queen-she-is-out-of-touch-with-the-humanitarian-values\/","name":"Tyrants And The Queen: She Is Out Of Touch With The Humanitarian Values - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/tyrants-and-the-queen-she-is-out-of-touch-with-the-humanitarian-values\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/tyrants-and-the-queen-she-is-out-of-touch-with-the-humanitarian-values\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/uvindu1.jpg","datePublished":"2012-05-26T20:46:55+00:00","dateModified":"2012-06-02T23:53:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/tyrants-and-the-queen-she-is-out-of-touch-with-the-humanitarian-values\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/tyrants-and-the-queen-she-is-out-of-touch-with-the-humanitarian-values\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/tyrants-and-the-queen-she-is-out-of-touch-with-the-humanitarian-values\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/uvindu1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/uvindu1.jpg","width":"101","height":"97","caption":"Uvindu Kurukulasuriya"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/tyrants-and-the-queen-she-is-out-of-touch-with-the-humanitarian-values\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tyrants And The Queen: She Is Out Of Touch With The Humanitarian Values"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3","name":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/uvindu1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42846"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43786,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42846\/revisions\/43786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}