4 November 2013

John Key urged to join Canada and boycott CHOGM meeting in Sri Lanka

GPJA is supporting a march in Auckland this Saturday organised by the New Zealand Tamil Society to protest war crimes and on-going human rights abuses in Sri Lanka and to call for Prime Minister John Key to boycott this month’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka.

The march will leave Britomart at 12 noon for Aotea Square this Saturday 9th November.

“We are asking John Key to join Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and boycott CHOGM which starts on 15th November. Canada is making a strong stand on this issue and New Zealand should join them.”

The government of Sri Lanka is complicit in massive war crimes committed during the closing stages of the war of independence fought by the Tamil minority against the Sri Lankan army under Mahina Rajapaksa – now Sri Lanka’s President.

According to the United Nations, Rajapaksa’s army oversaw the indiscriminate killing of between 40,000 and 70,000 ethnic Tamil civilians in 2009.

Rajapaksa is a war criminal with blood on his hands. As President he has refused all calls for an international inquiry into the indiscriminate bombing of civilians, summary executions, torture and murder which took place under his command. The evidence is incontrovertible with many video clips showing what took place in Sri Lanka’s killing fields.

If John Key goes to CHOGM he will be giving great comfort to the worst war criminal of this century.

Meanwhile human rights abuses against the Tamil community continue across Sri Lanka today”

“We reject the argument that human rights concerns are best delivered in person. A few weasel words behind closed doors will do nothing for the Tamil community of Sri Lanka.”

“The most potent international response is boycott and isolation. Canada is showing the way and we should follow.”

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