Despite request to Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group:

CHOGM will go ahead as scheduled

by S. Selvakumar

Despite various false allegations levelled against Sri Lanka by local bodies with vested interests including the LTTE rump calling upon the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group to suspend the country from the Commonwealth, everything was in place to hold the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo in November, Deputy Minister of External Affairs Neomal Perera said.

He was commenting, on a recent resolution adopted by the Commonwealth Lawyers Association, Commonwealth Legal Education Association and Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association calling upon the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group to suspend Sri Lanka from the Councils of Commonwealth so that Sri Lanka could be deprived of the organisations chairmanship.

“Various elements who want to bring disrepute to the country were moving these Associations to bring pressure on the Commonwealth Secretariat through the Ministerial Action Group to suspend Sri Lanka,” Perera said.

Asked what sort of elements were behind these moves, the Deputy Minister said various people against whom cases were pending, the LTTE rump and powerful individuals who asked for favours but denied were some of them, he said.

He recalled that earlier, too, the Ministerial Action Group dismissed these requests to suspend Sri Lanka from the Councils of Commonwealth and this time, too, the same fate would befall them, the Deputy Minister said.

The Ministerial Action Group is scheduled to meet on April 26 and the request of these Associations which does not wield much power would be rejected, Perera said.

These Associations have been totally misled by local elements with vested interests and the fact that legal associations have been moved to request the Ministerial Action Group was a clear indication that these elements were trying to harp on the recent impeachment of Chief Justice Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake since they do not have any other reason to do so.

The impeachment against Bandaranayake was carried out according to the rules and regulations stipulated in the Constitution, the Deputy Minister said.