Commonwealth summit opens in Sri Lanka amid boycotts over human rights concerns

The Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) summit in Sri Lanka opened on Friday with a dazzling display of dancers, giant spinning pinwheels and 56 elephants, but the spectacle could not distract the summit from the boycotts by the leaders of Canada and India and a fact-finding mission that the prime minister of the UK undertook to the country's war-torn north.

The three-day Commonwealth summit in the country has come in for strident criticism after the Sri Lankan government repeatedly refused to allow independent investigations into alleged war crimes and rights abuses during and after a 27-year civil war. There have also been reports of media harassment and rights abuses recently.

Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper boycotting the summit, said last month, that he would skip the event over human rights abuses concerns, including alleged disappearances and extra-judicial killings.  Mauritian prime minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam joined the boycott later.

Meanwhile, prime minister Manmohan Singh chose not to travel to Colombo, although it was partly due domestic pressures.

Sri Lanka's president Mahinda Rajapaksa, who together with his brothers had controlled the Buddhist Sinhalese-majority nation since 2005, insists there had been no abuses by his army and that complaints were being handled by the courts.

He invoked Buddha in his opening speech with a quote meant to counter the objections of those questioning Sri Lanka's commitment to democracy and human rights.

"Pay no attention to the faults of others, things done or left undone by others. Consider only what by oneself is done or left undone," he said in Sinhala. He also warned against turning the Commonwealth into a "punitive or judgmental body."

Rajapaksa said if the Commonwealth was to remain relevant to its members-nations, it needed to respond sensitively to the needs of their peoples and not let it turn into a punitive or judgmental body.

He said the Commonwealth countries needed to collectively guard against the introduction of bilateral agendas into the organisation, distorting its traditions and consensus. ''Should not the Commonwealth collectively strive towards the realisation of development goals to enable its member-countries to reap economic benefits?'' he asked.

While economic priorities took centre stage, he said, countries must not forget that people were the greatest wealth. He emphasised that strengthening the quality of human capital would help the nations achieve sustained growth.