BOYCOTT CHOMGM, SAY DAP

While DAP wants the Prime Minister to boycott CHOGM in Sri Lanka, MIC says 'no comment' on the matter.

By Admin

GEORGE TOWN: DAP has called on the government to boycott the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting (CHOGM) scheduled to be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka next month due to blatant human violations committed by the island republic against ethnic Tamils there.

Party secretary general Lim Guan Eng said the DAP central executive committee (CEC) unanimously decided, on Wednesday, to call for the boycott as a humanitarian protest against the recalcitrant Sri Lankan government’s stubborn refusal to account for the deaths of tens of thousands of Tamil civilians during closing stages of the country’s civil war in 2009.

Until today, he said, Colombo had failed to investigate and prosecute those responsible for crimes against innocent Tamils during the civil war.

He noted that thousands of Tamils who disappeared during the civil war had not been accounted for by the government, while those responsible for the rapes against Tamil women and girls had not been brought to justice

He pointed out that international human rights organisations including the United Nations had warned Colombo to investigate allegations of murders, rapes and disappearances.

“However, the Sri Lankan government had not been forthcoming with any form of investigations into these allegations,” said Lim, the Bagan MP, in a statement here today.

The DAP also urged all Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties to press Putrajaya to boycott CHOGM on November 15-17 as a sign of protest.

“DAP has consistently opposed regimes that violate human rights and place constraints on democracy. In this respect, DAP thinks that holding of CHOGM in Colombo is not an appropriate thing to do,” said Lim, who is also Penang Chief Minister.

Recently, United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights, Naveen Pillay, issued a serious warning to the Sri Lanka government to address the pressing human rights concerns, failing which the UN would order an international investigation into the conduct of the government.

Given these gross violations of human rights and deterioration of democracy in Sri Lanka, some countries like Canada has expressed serious concern about Sri Lanka and whether Colombo is the rightful venue for CHOGM.

Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper has already announced that he would boycott the meet.

Facing intense pressure from political parties in state of Tamil Nadu, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is still undecided on whether to attend the CHOGM, while Kenya is contemplating to boycott the Colombo’s international event.

Meanwhile, MIC President G Palanivel did not want to comment on the matter, when approached by reporters after the party’s central working committee meeting on Friday.

His ‘no comment’ remarks has come under fire from fellow CWC members, who feel it will have a negative impact on the party.

Palanivel said that he would concentrate on the largest Indian based party in the country rather than talking about CHOGM.

Although MIC is made up of various ethnic Indian groups, Tamils are majority in the party.

“As far as I know, people in India staged several protest (against the Sri Lanka government). But, there was no protest in Malaysia on this matter,” Palanivel had said at the press conference.

A CWC members, who did not want to be named, said most members at the meeting were shocked by Palanivel’s answer to the media on the issue.

“Everyone knows that Sri Lanka’s war crimes against its Tamil population was a very serious and it is a very sensitive issue in Malaysia. People in Malaysia donated millions of ringgit to help the Tamil population in Sri Lanka. Even, MIC itself staged several protests in the past on this matter.

“I do not know if he is ignorant and just plain careless,” said the CWC...FMT