Manmohan Singh and Canadian PM to stay away as David Cameron defends UK stance over alleged Sri Lankan war crimes
The Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, is to boycott the Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka this week, dealing a blow to the credibility of the gathering amid controversy over alleged human rights abuses by its host.
Officials said Singh would write to Sri Lanka's president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, to explain his decision, which is thought to be related to domestic political pressure to take a stronger stance against alleged war crimes committed during the 26-year civil war.
The absence of the leader of the Commonwealth's biggest member will also embarrass David Cameron, who said his presence in Sri Lanka was the "right decision" for the Commonwealth and would allow a "tough message" about its human rights record to be delivered personally.
The Sri Lankan government has been accused of instigating a wave of repression to muzzle critics and of failing to investigate war crimes committed by its armed forces during the bloody end of the war against violent Tamil separatists in the north of the country.
A British parliamentary committee has noted "continuing human rights abuses" in Sri Lanka and the UN has also been criticalalso been particularly over a lack of effort towards over reconciliation between the Sinhala majority and the Tamil minority.
Sri Lankan officials deny the charges, which they say are exaggerated, unfounded and biased, and point to Rajapaksa's successive electoral victories.
So far, Stephen Harper, the Canadian prime minister, is the only other head of government to boycott the meeting, a biennial summit known as the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm), which will be chaired by Prince Charles. Singh will send his foreign minister in his place.
William Hague, the British foreign secretary, said yesterday that Cameron would be able to do more to promote human rights in the country by attending the gathering.
Hague said he could "understand" why Cameron's prime ministerial counterparts in Canada and India had decided to stay away because of Sri Lanka's human rights record, but that he and Cameron would not be following their example.
"We have decided that if we were to stay away, it would damage the Commonwealth without changing these positively in Sri Lanka," Hague told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.
"We are going to say, 'Well, Sri Lanka is in the spotlight so let's make full use of it being in the spotlight.' Rather than sit in London and talk about it, we will be there in Sri Lanka."
He said that while in Sri Lanka, Cameron would be visiting the Tamil-dominated north of the country. He would be the first head of government to visit the north since the island achieved independence in 1948, Hague said.
The foreign secretary spoke as Labour renewed its call for Cameron to stay away. Douglas Alexander, the shadow foreign secretary, said: "For months Labour has urged the government to do more to raise Britain's concern over human rights in Sri Lanka in the runup to the summit."
The meeting posed a dilemma for the Indian government, which has complex and often tense relations with Sri Lanka. Chinese influence in the island nation has grown significantly in recent years and there are fears in Delhi that further deterioration would allow Beijing to make more inroads.
The Commonwealth summit is also a useful chance for Indian leaders to meet those of other developing nations, especially in Africa, former diplomats said.
But the Indian election next spring is likely to lead to frantic coalition-building and alienating local voters or potential allies for Singh's beleaguered Congress party now would be costly.
Political powerbrokers in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where voters are ethnically and linguistically close to Sri Lanka's Tamil minority, have repeatedly pressed Singh to take a stronger stance against alleged human rights violations in Sri Lanka.
In March, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party (DMK) withdrew from the ruling coalition in protest at Delhi's supposed failure to toughen a UN resolution that asked Sri Lanka to investigate the war crimes charges.
Singh has previously told the DMK president, M Karunanidhi, that his decision on whether to travel to Colombo would be taken in "the best interests of the people of India and of Tamil Nadu".
Karunanidhi said this weekend that he was relieved at the news but concerned that India was still sending its foreign minister, Salman Khurshid, to Colombo.
Tamil Nadu's chief minister, J Jayalalithaa, another potential coalition ally in next year's polls, had written to Singh "to reiterate Tamil Nadu's view that India should not participate in the Chogm hosted by Sri Lanka at any level – titular, ministerial or official.
"Only such an action will convey India's unequivocal stand that it will not tolerate the violation of human rights of the Sri Lankan Tamil minority," she told the prime minister.
Senior Sri Lankan officials told the Guardian that "public lecturing" on human rights was unhelpful and asked that foreign observers should "remember that we are a developing country and need time to get things right, in our own way".
Officials at the Indian foreign ministry have downplayed the decision to boycott the summit, which was reportedly taken by senior Congress party officials last Friday and is seen as a defeat for foreign policy mandarins in Delhi. They said it was not unusual for a prime minister to be unable to attend the meeting.
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