Wednesday, 13 November 2013 00:01
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Host of next CHOGM (2015) to skip summit over Lanka’s rights record
First time a Mauritian PM will miss a CHOGM
The Prime Minister of Mauritius has said he will stay away from this week’s Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka because of Colombo’s poor human rights record.
Mauritius joins India and Canada in refusing to send a head of government to Sri Lanka because of its rights abuses against Tamil civilians during the last phase of the war.
“This is a decision taken by Mauritius as a sovereign state, in the face of the absence of progress in Sri Lanka on the respect of human rights,” Prime Minister Navin Chandra Ramgoolam told the Mauritian Parliament.
He said Mauritius, due to host the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2015, believed “human rights are more important than everything else”.
Addressing a press briefing with Minister G.L. Peiris and Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma at the CHOGM Media Centre at the BMICH yesterday, Mauritian Foreign Minister Arwin Boollel said the country did not adopt a ‘judgmental posture’. “I am representing Mauritius on behalf of my Prime Minister,” the Minister said, adding that the country was faithful to its principles.
It will be the first time since the island’s independence in 1968 that a Mauritian prime minister will be absent from a Commonwealth summit.
Mauritius will be represented at the 53-member bloc’s summit in Colombo by its Foreign Minister Arvin Boolell.
India will also be represented by its Foreign Minister, while Commonwealth giant Canada is making the strongest boycott, sending only a parliamentary secretary dealing with human rights issues.
Ethnic Tamils make up an estimated 10% of Mauritius’ population.
