Mauritius’s human rights stance paves way for Malta’s CHOGM bid

Malta secured its bid to organise the 2015 Commonwealth Head of Governments Meeting after Mauritius pulled out from organizing the event in protest over the decision to hold this year's gathering in Sri Lanka, which is accused of committing widespread human rights violations.

Mauritius had been chosen to stage the biennial gathering in 2015, but its Prime Minister Navin Chandra Ramgoolam announced just ahead of the Colombo gathering that it no longer wanted to play the role of hosts, citing Sri Lanka's human rights record.

"I have made it perfectly clear that human rights are more important than hosting a Commonwealth summit, regardless of its importance," Ramgoolam, who boycotted the Colombo summit, said.

The leaders of India and Canada also stayed away from this year's summit after allegations of war crimes committed by Sri Lankan government forces at the end of the country's 37-year ethnic conflict.

But Prime Minister Joseph Muscat backed the stance of British Prime Minister David Cameron against boycotting this event, insisting that not attending the meeting was not a solution.

"One should attend, make his points clear with the Sri Lankan Presidency and bring the country to the attention of the international media," Muscat said.

On his part David Cameron left Colombo yesterday having failed to secure any concessions from President Mahinda Rajapaksa or persuade fellow leaders to criticize Sri Lanka's record in a communiqué. Before he left, Cameron gave Sri Lanka until March to order an independent inquiry into alleged brutality against civilians or face an international UN-backed investigation.

However, Rajapaksa reacted defiantly to the UK's call, saying "people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones", adding that Sri Lanka would "take its own time" in probing alleged abuses.

In May 2009 Sri Lanka's army defeated the separatist Tamil Tigers after almost 30 years of brutal and bloody civil war. But the spotlight has focused on the final phase of that war as civilians were hemmed into a thin strip of land on the northeastern coast - both sides are accused of atrocities here.

A report by the UN estimates that as many as 40,000 civilians were killed in that final phase, mostly by government shelling - and Sri Lanka continues to be accused of the rape and torture of detainees, enforced disappearances of activists and the intimidation of journalists.