Colombo: Sri Lanka Foreign Minister GL Peiris
on Tuesday claimed here that the outcome of the Commonwealth Heads
of Government Meeting (CHOGM) held in Australia last week was
"a singular (Lankan) triumph in three different respects".
Peiris said the decision to confirm Sri Lanka's hosting of
the 2013 summit was the foremost of them.
There was some uncertainty over Sri Lanka becoming the
venue after war crimes allegations raised in a special UN
panel report on Sri Lanka came to be the subject of calls for
an independent investigation.
"Secondly the immediate rejection -it was dead before it
began -the rejection of the Canada's attempt to raise Sri
Lanka's domestic issues as part of the proceedings at CHOGM,"
Peiris said.
During the closing stages of the foreign ministers'
deliberations, the Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird
attempted to criticize Sri Lanka's rights accountability and
Peiris objected to it.
The third triumph Peiris said was "the rejection by the
relevant Australian authorities the vexatious attempt to
embarrass President Rajapaksa through a totally futile
litigation without any grounds whatsoever."
A Sri Lankan born Australian Tamil filed court action
against Rajapaksa in Melbourne accusing him of committing war
crimes against the Tamil minority during the final stages of
the military campaign against the LTTE which ended in May
2009.
Peiris said it was an intimidating tactic used by the LTTE
sympathizers and well orchestrated campaign in the Australian
media.
Peiris stressed that Lanka's voice was heard and respected
and the outcome at CHOGM was "an unparalleled achievement of
Sri Lanka's foreign policy and diplomacy."
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, November 01, 2011, 18:02