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President Sirisena participates at Commonwealth Day as Chair-in-Office
British Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to issue a statement on Sri Lanka to coincide with President Maithripala Sirisena’s visit to London to participate in the Commonwealth Day events.
As Chair-in-Office of the Commonwealth President Sirisena who left for London last morning will meet the British monarch who heads the Commonwealth and is also expected to meet David Cameron briefly at No 10, Downing Street mid-week though the latter meeting is still to be confirmed.
Mr. Cameron’s “opinion piece”, which is also being worked on, while congratulating President Sirisena’s government on its commitment to return Sri Lanka to democratic, accountable and transparent rule, is expected to urge the Sri Lankan government to co-operate with the UN probe into alleged war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law following last year’s US Resolution that was strongly backed by Britain.
Mr. Cameron is expected to argue that reconciliation with the Tamil community requires that anyone found to have committed war crimes must be held accountable and that President Sirisena’s government provides the best opportunity to carry forward the healing process which is a prerequisite for genuine reconciliation.
While suggesting that Britain would be ready to assist in this process the Cameron statement will not only be aimed at the visiting Sri Lankan President but also the Tamil diaspora in the UK which is of domestic political importance to the Conservative Party-led government which will be fighting a parliamentary election in early May. With the Conservatives and Labour running neck- to- neck in the latest opinion polls with Labour ahead by one percentage point, the minority vote including that of the Tamil community could prove significant in well over 60 marginal seats.
Mr. Cameron’s intention is to show that his government is still fighting in the Tamil corner.
While the move is intended to appease Britain’s Tamil diaspora, not all Tamil groups are ready to welcome President Sirisena, even though his presence is in connection with Commonwealth Day.The British Tamils Forum(BTF), one of the diaspora organisations, has organised a static protest outside Westminister Abbey on March 9 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. when President Sirisena will be attending a multi-faith event in connection with Commonwealth Day.
The BTF while calling on the Tamil community to participate in the protest has wrongly described Maithripala Sirisena as the defence minister in the Mahinda Rajapaksa government allegedlyresponsible for killing of “70,000 Tamil civilians inthe course of a few weeks.”