Hundreds of Australian Tamils joined others protesting outside the Commonwealth summit in Perth on Friday.

See TamilNet's report on the Perth protests here.

Also, see the Daily Mail’s report, with several photographs, on the Commonwealth summit, and the protests outside, here.

- Hamish McDonald, the Sydney Morning Herald’s Asia-Pacific editor. See his comment here.

A senior Sri Lankan diplomat says that "plans have been" made to thwart any attempts to bring out issues related to Colombo's human rights at the Commonwealth summit in Austrlia.

He said several Commonwealth countries have shown solidarity towards Sri Lanka and have dismissed those accusing Colombo of human rights violations.

The unnamed diplomat added:

"Already we have India backing us along with several South Asian and African countries. India has indicated that they will oppose a Commonwealth report that seeks to establish a monitoring group for member countries on human rights.

"Most of these allegations [of abuses] are baseless and are part of an international propaganda campaign against Sri Lanka. We have taken steps to counter such propaganda.”

See the report by Maldives-based Haveeru  here.

See Amnesty International’s statement here 

Hundreds of Australian Tamils joined others protesting outside the Commonwealth summit in Perth on Friday.

See TamilNet's report on the Perth protests here.

See more pictures of the protest here.

Also, see the Daily Mail’s report, with several photographs, on the Commonwealth summit, and the protests outside, here.

Rather than resettling displaced Tamils, since the war ended, the Sri Lankan armed forces have occupied a further 7,000 sq km of land owned by Tamil people.

So what do the government’s claims of resettlement mean?

“According to the government's own figures as at 1st July 2011, 258,446 had been ‘returned' or ‘resettled' from welfare camps, leaving 12,661 in the Kadirgamar, Anandakumarasawmi (Zone 1), Arunachalam (Zone III) IDP camps. The most current figures suggest that only 7,440 persons remain in these camps, insinuating that all others have been returned or resettled.

“What the statistics do not reveal is that over 200,000 persons in the North and East have not been returned to their places of origin. These persons either continue to be confined in transit camps or have been compelled to take shelter with host families [elsewhere].

“Such persons include those displaced from Valikamam North in the Jaffna Peninsula, Sampur in the Trincomalee District, and several other areas in the Vanni.”

- M.A. Sumanthiran, TNA parliamentarian. See The Hindu’s report here.

See also TamilNet’s latest report (from Mannar) on this issue  here.

Amnesty International has called on the Commonwealth to block Sri Lanka from hosting the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2013 or risk becoming “irrelevant”.

The statement was released to mark the opening of the 2011 CHOGM in Perth, where Sri Lanka has come under increased pressure to deal with issues if war crimes and human rights.

Madhu Malhotra, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Deputy Director said,

"It's absurd to even consider allowing Sri Lanka to host CHOGM as long as it fails to account for alleged war crimes". 

"Today Commonwealth leaders are faced with a choice – reform the Commonwealth so that it can effectively address human rights violations by its members, or risk becoming irrelevant."

Amnesty also commented on Sri Lanka and India’s “pre-emptive attack” on proposed reforms to the Commonwealth, aimed at making the organisation more accountable for human rights and the founding principles of the group.

She went on to say,

"Sri Lanka and India's pre-emptive attack on these reforms - before they've even had a chance to be discussed - shows they would have a lot to lose if their human rights records were open to scrutiny."

See our earlier posts:

'Sri Lanka: war crimes concerns are "propaganda" and "hearsay"' (Oct 2011)

''Malaise and drift' in the Commonwealth'' (Oct 2011)

'Commonwealth at crossroads' (Oct 2011)

Paul Dewar, a Member of Parliament and candidate for the leadership of the New Democratic Party in Canada, has released a statement urging the Commonwealth to hold Sri Lanka to account for alleged war crimes.

He joined Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in his call for an independent investigation into war crimes in Sri Lanka and called to boycott the next CHOGM unless Sri Lanka had made progress on human rights.

In his statement, Dewar said,

“The Commonwealth must not condone impunity. Once again, I call on the government of Sri Lanka to agree to a full, independent inquiry into the allegations of war crimes committed by all sides during and after the Sri Lankan conflict.

The Government of Canada must take leadership and bring the Commonwealth countries together to collectively hold the government of Sri Lanka to account.

The next Commonwealth meeting should not take place in Sri Lanka unless the Sri Lankan government has accepted an independent investigation of alleged war crimes and committed to a true reconciliation process, beginning with justice for victims of violence."

His call comes as Canadian-Tamil MP Radhika Sitsabaiesan raised the issue of Sri Lanka in the Canadian Parliament, calling for Canada to take more “concrete action” to hold Sri Lanka accountable for human rights violations and said,

“We need action now, not just words.”

Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, Deepak Obhrai, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs replied,

"Canada is very concerned that the underlying sources of conflict are not being addressed and we are of the view that a political solution, including the devolution of power, is a critical component of sustainable peace in Sri Lanka.

Canada is of the view that the government of Sri Lanka must show tangible progress in the handling of political reconciliation and seriously address the credible allegations of violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law as reported by the UN Secretary-General's panel of experts.

We have made it very clear to the Sri Lankan government that we expect to see some tangible progress in Sri Lanka in terms of human rights, political reconciliation and accountability. The Prime Minister has made it clear that if he does not see any tangible evidence moving toward that direction, then he will not attend the next Commonwealth conference to be held in Sri Lanka."

See our earlier posts:

'Canadian Peace Alliance supports Tamil nation’s self-determination' (Oct 2011)

'Sri Lanka will be discussed at Commonwealth - Canada' (Oct 2011)

Dr Gideon Boas, Associate Professor in the Monash University Law School and a former Senior Legal Officer at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, writes on Australia’s response to war crimes charges filed in a local court against Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa:

“Despite our recent endeavours (driven by Kevin Rudd) to make a case for a seat on the UN Security Council, and our purported desire to assert our relevance in the international community, the fact remains that we are a parochial and unsophisticated country, both socially and politically.

“Fearful of allowing international law to play any real role in our own domestic legal and political life, lest we be contaminated by cosmopolitan politics and conceptions of international morality, our own Federal Court could hold as recently as 1999 that genocide (yes, genocide) was not a crime under Australian law.

“Of course, the prosecution sought by Jegan Waren against the Sri Lankan president was never going to get off the ground. I doubt that was genuinely the aim.

“It should, however, serve to highlight how inadequate the response internationally and in our own country has been to the clear evidence of massive human rights atrocities and war crimes by the Sri Lankan authorities against the Tamils during the bitter civil war in that country.”

See the full text of his op-ed on ABC's blog here.

The Sri Lankan government dismissed human rights concerns raised by delegates at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, Australia, this week as "propaganda" from the Eelam Tamil diaspora, referred to as the "LTTE rump".

Speaking on Thursday to the ABC news channel, the Sri Lankan president's spokesperson, Bandula Jayasekera, said,

"This is hearsay. These are mere allegations... we have ended 30 years of terror."

"This is the well-oiled propaganda machinery of the LTTE rump"

Sri Lanka's comments come the day after the Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard, personally raised the issue of human rights and war crimes with the Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, as well as the wider context of overwhelming international calls, in the run up to the CHOGM 2011, for an independent investigation into alleged war crimes.

Australia urges UNHRC to examine war crimes (Oct 2011)

More evidence of war crimes (Oct 2011)

Former Australian PM calls for tougher approach on Sri Lanka (Oct 2011)

Rajapaksa indicted for war crimes in Australian court (Oct 2011)

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a former British Foreign Secretary and member of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group, wrote in The Times on Monday:

“Commonwealth heads of government are meeting in Australia this week. During the anti-apartheid struggles, such a summit would have been an event of world importance. On this occasion the world will hardly notice.

“Even the most ardent supporters of the Commonwealth, of whom I am one, would acknowledge that a sense of drift and malaise has begun to set in.

“Most damaging has been a deviation from the focus on human rights for which the Commonwealth has long been known. Military coups in Pakistan and in Fiji in 2006 resulted in a suspension of membership. Yet little has been done to ensure that freedoms are not eroded in a less dramatic fashion.

“For instance, the Commonwealth was tragically silent in the face of reports detailing major human rights abuses in Sri Lanka. Whatever the rights and wrongs of that conflict, the paltry response was a far cry from the Commonwealth’s role in denouncing apartheid.

“If the Commonwealth is to have a healthy future, it must rediscover its unique role in promoting the rule of law and democratic values.”

See the full text of his op-ed here.

"How many more lives will it take before the government acts to end mandatory detention?

"How absolutely tragic, but how telling, that an accepted refugee could feel despair enough to take their own life in a detention centre."

"It is a pretty tragic case. He had already been in detention for over two years, and by anyone's definition that is far, far too long."

"ASIO themselves, on the public record in various reports, have said they do not require people to be in detention simply because they're waiting for their final security check."

"His desperate act, plus the harsh conditions in detention centres as exposed by Four Corners (on ABC television) on Monday night, show why Australia should immediately end its cruel policy of indefinite and mandatory detention"

"The responsibility is Chris Bowen's."

"We now know that it is a deliberate decision by the Immigration Department to keep people in detention even when they have been found to be refugees.

"The levels of self-harm, the levels of attempted suicide... it is just soul destroying, it is destroying people".

"It is literally killing people and the Minister talks about community detention, he talks about bridging visas to get people out of detention.

He has that power to provide bridging visas now. He should stop talking about it and start letting people out."

"How many more deaths are we going to need before our political leaders stop spouting about offshore processing and deterrence of boat people, and turn their minds to putting an end to this rotten system?”

"This system disables people, it excludes and vilifies people and it kills people."

"When supporters and advocates had attempted to ring him earlier in the evening, because it was well known he was distressed, they were not put through because it was after 9pm.

This was despite repeated pleas that he was not OK; they were denied."

“We held everything, we held money, we held property, we held everything but we can't do nothing in there but because not freedom in there, our country.”

"But suicide has become quite normal for them."

Yet more photographs documenting executions, extrajudicial killings and the degradation of Tamil women have emerged said the president of the International Commission of Jurists Australia, John Dowd QC, on Wednesday.

Dowd confirmed the damning evidence had been mailed to him, and he had passed on the evidence to the Australian Federal Police.

Describing the shocking images, Dowd said,

"(The evidence) deals with executions, it deals with such (things) as shooting through the forehead, ... it deals with the exposure of women's bodies, presumably after death, and it deals with other evidence showing Sri Lankan army officials and officers,"

"All members of the Commonwealth, if the Commonwealth is going to be taken notice of as a human rights body discussing human rights, should take this fact into account."

The photographs come amidst the Australia urging the UN Human Rights Council to investigate alleged war crimes, as well as recent attempts to file a case against the Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is currently in Australia attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. The case has been halted by the Attorney-General citing diplomatic immunity.

India and Australia have confirmed separately that they will not seek a change of venue for the 2013 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, due to be held in Sri Lanka.

Prime Minister Gillard reassured Sri Lankan President Rajapakse at a meeting in Perth that there will be no debate on Sri Lanka hosting the next CHOGM.

"My understanding is there is no intention to revisit the question of hosting of the next CHOGM meeting," she said.

Meanwhile, commonwealth sources told The Island that a Canadian official asked for a recall of the decision to hold the next meeting in Sri Lanka, but the move was reportedly thwarted by Sri Lanka and its allies.

An official at the Indian High Commission in Colombo said that India also opposes moves to reopen the issue. the official quoted Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai, who told reporters on Tuesday, that the decision was made in 2009 and does not need to be reviewed.

Mathai also voiced concerns about the Eminent Persons Group report, due to be released this week.

"As far as the EPG is concerned, we have seen the report and we had a discussion on it in New York when the Foreign Ministers of the Commonwealth met [...]

"Certainly the proposal for the Commissioner for Democracy, Rule of Law and Human Rights is one on which we have some reservations.

"The responsibilities spelt out in this would seem to undermine the role of both the Secretary-General and the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group itself which is actually dealing with precisely those issues. Secondly, it seems to us that this particular proposal is like a duplication of what the UN is already doing through its Rapporteurs.”