New Delhi has advocated looking at human rights issues in Sri Lanka holistically. Speaking to the Indian journalists in Colombo this evening on the side lines of CHOGM, Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid said the issue should be addressed as part of the larger developmental issue. He said these matters are central to the deliberations that are going on in the 22nd Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting of the leaders in Colombo.
On the issue of Tamil community’s sentiments, Khurshid said that it is India’s position to remain engaged with Sri Lanka and to offer all assistance to it and to convince Colombo to address the issues of accountability and reconciliation.
Khurshid had earlier intervened in the debate in the Summit this evening on behalf of the developing nations and called for adequate financing by the developed world for meeting the UN goals for development and climate change.
Opening CHOGM earlier in the Morning host President Mahinda Rajapaksa asked the member states not to be judgmental and punitive but to help each other meet the challenges of development. Under attack over alleged humnan rights violations in the war against the LTTE, the combative President said Sri Lanka has nothing to answer for on human rights. Undaunted by a boycott by some leaders and the raging debate on rights violations, Rajapaksa opened the meeting saying the relevance of the organization will be tested by its ability to fight against poverty and economic disparity.
Prince Charles of England is representing Queen Elizabeth II at the Summit. AIR Correspondent says, the highlight of the day was however the historic visit of British Prime Minister David Cameron to Jafna in the Northern Province. He met the families of the people who disappeared in the civil war and who have been demanding investigations into the disappearances. Cameron, has urged the government to show generosity and magnanimity towards the Tamil minority.
Cameron, who became the first foreign leader to visit the Jaffna region since Sri Lanka's independence,was mobbed by relatives of those who had been missing in the final stages of the country's civil war. He met Tamil leaders and some of the victims of the country's prolonged civil war. He later went to the offices of a leading Tamil newspaper 'Uthayan'. Several of the newspaper reporters were killed during the war. Cameron is in Sri Lanka to attend the Commonwealth Summit.
