Britain has said that the participation at the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo is the right thing for the Commonwealth.
Speaking on Wednesday at the debate on human rights in the Commonwealth at the House of Commons in the British parliament, British Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Hugo Swire said that the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary and he had decided to attend the meeting. “That is the right thing for the Commonwealth- an organisation we strongly support- which has a positive role to play in promoting freedom, democracy and human rights,” he said.
During the debate several Parliamentarians demanded the meeting in Colombo be boycotted.
“In 2009, Sri Lanka offered to host the CHOGM in 2011. At the CHOGM in Trinidad and Tobago in 2009, the Heads of Government decided not to accept the offer and decided that Australia should host CHOGM in Perth in 2011. They decided that Sri Lanka should host it in 2013, and that decision was reaffirmed in Perth, at which the Commonwealth representative was a Minister from the previous Government. There was no widespread support among the Heads of Government for a change of location,” he added.
Source: Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)
