COLOMBO — Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma has urged
Canada to drop its threat to boycott the group's summit in Sri Lanka next year
over war crimes allegations.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has warned that he may refuse to
attend the summit unless Sri Lanka addresses allegations of atrocities during
the closing battles of the war against separatist Tamil rebels in 2009.
Sharma, completing a five-day visit to Sri Lanka on Thursday, said the
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in November 2013 should be
attended by all nations.
"My message to all leaders is to participate at this (Sri Lanka)
CHOGM," he told reporters on Wednesday after talks in Colombo with
President Mahinda Rajapakse.
"I understand a dialogue is going on between the two
countries," he said, adding that he hoped the issue would be
"resolved" so that Canada could participate in the summit.
The war crimes allegations centre on the Sri Lankan military's final
push against the Tamil Tiger rebels before victory for the government ended
decades of ethnic bloodshed on the island.
Sri Lanka has denied allegations from international rights groups that
government troops killed up to 40,000 civilians while battling Tamil rebels.
Commonwealth countries such as Australia and Canada have been vocal in
their calls for Sri Lanka to ensure accountability for rights abuses, placing
the issue high on the agenda at the 54-nation bloc's summit last year.
Canada had wanted the Commonwealth to change the venue of the 2013
summit, but other member states turned down the request.
