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Boycotting CHOGM may help SL Tamils-Desmond Tutu

08 Nov 2013 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

A boycott of a meeting of Commonwealth leaders this month in Sri Lanka could help pressure Colombo to address alleged war crimes against minority Tamils, South African peace campaigner and Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu said on Thursday.

The Sri Lankan government, which defeated separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009, is under increasing pressure from the international community to try those responsible for rights abuses during the nearly three-decade-long conflict.

"If there are enough reasons to suggest that the Sri Lanka government have not been doing things with integrity, I think the world has to apply all the screws that it can," Tutu told a select group of journalists during a visit to New Delhi.

"And a boycott of the CHOGM could be one of them."

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has already said he would boycott the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) which Sri Lanka is hosting on November 15 to 17.

At the same time, Tutu said it was important to know what Tamils themselves felt about a boycott.

"I am saying 'Yes, maybe they (the heads of governments) shouldn't go' and I would be guided what the Tamils there would be saying on the issue," added Tutu.

Tutu, 82, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for speaking out against white minority rule in South Africa and supported the economic boycott of country during the apartheid era.

He is chairman of The Elders, a group of prominent former world leaders which was started by Nelson Mandela to advocate on humanitarian issues.

Groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have called on the 53 Commonwealth heads of government, which include Britain and its former colonies, not to attend, or to send a low-level delegation, to the Indian Ocean island.(REUTERS)

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Boycotting CHOGM may help SL Tamils-Desmond Tutu

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