NZ Green MP urges Foreign Minister to change CHOGM chair

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 October 2013, 06:24 GMT]
New Zealand’s Green Party parliamentarian Ms Jan Logie on Friday wrote to New Zealand’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Murray McCully, urging him to support Canada’s political lead and publicly condemn Sri Lanka’s persistent failure to ensure justice for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. She also urged the Foreign Minister to take a strong stand on CHOGM and to call for another Chair to replace Rajapaksa when it comes time to appoint the Commonwealth Chairperson-in-office for the next two years.

“Allowing Sri Lanka’s President to become the chair of the commonwealth would undermine our efforts to strengthen human rights in the Asia Pacific. It would undermine the UN efforts to get a proper investigation of the war crimes and it would also seriously undermine the charter just developed by the Commonwealth committing Commonwealth leaders to democracy, human rights, tolerance, freedom of expression, good governance and the rule of law – none of which are respected by the Rajapaksa government,” the parliamentarian said.

“To stay silent and then go to Sri Lanka and accept their President, even symbolically, as leader of the Commonwealth for two years would be inappropriate, inconsistent and counter to our regional interests,” she further wrote in her letter.