Commonwealth summit a PR disaster for Sri Lanka amid Tamil war doubts
Sri Lankan president urges Commonwealth leaders not to judge island on Tamil war
Sri Lanka's president urged his peers yesterday not to pass judgment over his country's past as he hosted a Commonwealth summit that threatens to be upstaged by a visit to the war-torn north by Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron.
The summit was meant to be a chance for President Mahinda Rajapaksa, a Sinhalese nationalist leader who oversaw the crushing of the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009, to showcase the development of his country.
But after refusing to bow to demands for an independent investigation into the end of the conflict, Rajapaksa has faced a public-relations disaster.
The leaders of Canada, India and Mauritius have all snubbed the meeting, and Cameron's visit to the Jaffna region is designed to shine a spotlight on the plight of war victims.
In an opening speech, Rajapaksa said the Commonwealth must not be a "judgmental body" and warned his fellow leaders of trying to impose their own "bilateral agendas".
"If the Commonwealth is to remain relevant to its member countries, the association must respond to the needs of its people and not turn into a punitive or judgmental body," he said in a speech ahead of the formal opening of the summit by Britain's Prince Charles.