Suspend Sri Lanka from Commonwealth, urges TGTE

A senior leader of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, Alagaratnam JeyaBalan, has appealed to the Commonwealth Secretary General, Kamalesh Sharma, to suspend Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth “before the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) for throwing overboard the rule of law and principles of good governance.”

In a letter addressed to Sharma, Alagaratnam, representing the TGTE’s ministry for investigation of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, Ontario, pointed out that “countries like Canada, USA, EU and UK have tried hard for years to hold the Sri Lankan Government accountable for human rights violations and war crimes committed during the war without success.”

Sri Lanka “doesn’t follow the rules and protocols of the Commonwealth of Nations,” he said.

The letter further noted: “CHOGM should press Sri Lankan Government to allow independent investigation into the thousands of disappeared and thousands of brutally tortured and killed during and after the civil war.”

Alagaratnam appealed to the CHOGM “to take decisive action against Sri Lanka which is behaving like a rogue state in the interest of upholding the rule of law, democracy, freedom of speech, human rights, and (the) time honored democratic principles.”

Observing that “CHOGM has a historical duty to deal with human rights violators and autocratic rulers to make the world a better place to live,” he welcomed Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s recent statement that “he will boycott the CHOGM if the Sri Lankan Government fails to show progress on improving human rights and bringing about genuine reconciliation between different ethnic groups.” – TWL Bureau