26 March 2013-Queen Elizabeth II, Head of the 54-nation Commonwealth, is likely to skip the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo later this year, an Indian weekly newspaper has claimed.
The Sunday Guardian quoted unnamed officials within the Commonwealth Secretariat in London as saying that the Queen is “almost certain to skip the meeting,” scheduled for 15-17 November.
Several Heads of Government are also “likely to keep away” from the Colombo meeting “in protest against Sri Lanka’s human rights record,” the official added.
A senior official in the Commonwealth Secretariat told the newspaper that the Sri Lankan government has “spared no effort to convince (Commonwealth) members across the globe that it would be unfair and discriminatory to either change the venue or to boycott CHOGM.”
Efforts were made, and are ongoing, to change the venue of the meeting to Mauritius, which has obtained clearance to host the 2015 CHOGM, the weekly reported.
So far, Sri Lanka has not been able to persuade Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the primary protagonist of the “Boycott Colombo” campaign, to change his mind.
The pro-Eelam Tamil Diaspora in Canada has won over the Stephen Harper government and has made it “almost certain that Canada will boycott the Colombo meeting in its entirety,” the Commonwealth Secretariat official told the weekly.
Besides, the other “White Commonwealth”—-the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia—-may also desist from sending their Heads of Government to Colombo. Instead, they may depute either their Foreign Ministers or senior officials in their Foreign Ministries, the official further hinted.
If such a thing happens, it will essentially downgrade the upcoming summit of heads of government to a lower level affair.
The official also revealed that Canada is “putting pressure on the Caribbean members of the Commonwealth to back the boycott.” Canada provides substantial financial assistance to the dozen Caribbean members of the Commonwealth, namely: Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guayana, Jamaica, St Vincent $ the Grenadines, St Lucia, St Kitts & Newis, and Trinidad & Tobago.
The absence of Queen Elizabeth from the upcoming CHOGM will be a significant setback for President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government because she always makes it a point to attend such prestigious Commonwealth summit meetings across the globe.
The Queen has always focused on better goverance across the Commonwealth, all of whose members were part of the British Empire, except Mozambique and Rwanda.
Recently, she unveiled a “Commonwealth Charter,” which she wants implemented across the Commonwealth countries. The charter calls for good governance, respect for human rights, freedom of expression, and the rule of law.
The Queen has often talked of the “shared values” that bind the members of the Commonwealth together. In her view, these attributes form the core of such values.
Therefore, she is “unlikely to attend a forum in a capital where such values seem to be absent,” the Commonwealth Secretariat official confided.
