Harper warns Sri Lanka: Canada won't attend Commonwealth summit without human rights reform

Today in Question Period, opposition MPs wanted the government to take a harder line on Sri Lanka on the issue of human rights.

Here, for example, is a press release from Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis:

The Honourable Jim Karygiannis, Member of Parliament for Scarborough-Agincourt and Liberal Multiculturalism Critic, called on Canada’s Conservative Government to condemn the Sri Lankan government’s cover-up of war crimes by taking a leading role to ensure that Sri Lanka’s membership in the Commonwealth is revoked until it holds the perpetrators to account.

“In February 2009, the Sri Lankan government offered an amnesty, as the first step toward an inclusive political dialogue that would have contributed to a lasting peace.  It then proceeded to brutally murder thousands of innocent refugees.” said Mr. Karygiannis.  “It is time that the Sri Lankan government acknowledges that atrocities were committed in its name and brings the perpetrator to justice.”

Independent, international aid and humanitarian agencies have reported widespread abuses of human rights and summary killings during the last days of the Sri Lankan civil war.  Since no independent journalists were permitted in the war zone, the only record of the crimes, such as the Channel 4 documentary “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields”, was smuggled out by the survivors.

“The evidence is irrefutable.  There are scenes of Sri Lankan soldiers shooting bound and blindfolded people in the head.” Mr. Karygiannis stated.  “The Sri Lankan government must ensure that these thugs are brought to justice and pay for their crimes.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will attend the biannual Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit (CHOGM) in Perth, Australia next month and this issue may come up.

Sri Lanka is scheduled to host the 2013 CHOGM. Last month, in a roundtable discussion with reporters from news organizations that serve Canada's ethnic communities (hate that term — is there a better one?), Harper was asked about Sri Lanka. Here's that exchange from Sept. 9:

REPORTER:  I’m from CMR, and one of our largest listenership is Tamil and Sri Lankan specifically. You’ve taken a very strong position when you were at the Commonwealth summit to say that the next summit should not happen in Sri Lanka because of their human rights records. And recently there’s been many calls for an investigation into war crimes, at least war crimes in Sri Lanka by the UN… But Canada has been particularly silent about this over the past few months. What is Canada’s current position on it?

HARPER: Well, Canada’s position hasn’t changed. First of all, in terms of the specifics you raised in your preamble, I have expressed concerns about the holding of the next Commonwealth summit, the one after the one coming up, in Sri Lanka. I intend to make clear to my fellow leaders at the Commonwealth that if we do not see progress in Sri Lanka in terms of human rights and some of the issues that you raised, I will not as Prime Minister be attending that Commonwealth summit. And I hope that others will take a similar position, but I hope that this will pressure the Sri Lankan government to take the appropriate actions.

We are concerned about the situation. That country needs to make progress, not just in terms of what they did against…yeah, the Tigers, but they do have to make advances in terms of political reconciliation, democratic values and accountability. We support the calls of the United Nations Secretary General’s representative for an independent investigation, and we will… we hope that that work will continue, and we will… our position’s very clear that we are supportive of seeing an independent investigation on the matters that the United Nations has raised.

In global diplomacy circles,  the threat that Canada — obviously one of the most significant partners in the Commonwealth — would boycott a CHOGM and encourage others to do so is fairly significant development.

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