Thursday, 20 October 2011

By Tom Degun

October 20 – Mike Hooper, chief executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), said his organisation will not speculate on the issue regarding threats to expel Sri Lanka’s membership of the Commonwealth despite the fact that Sri Lankan city Hambantota is bidding against the Gold Coast in Australia to the 2018 Games.

Calls to remove Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth came after the Australian Federal Police (AFP) recently received a war crimes dossier from the International Commission of Jurists alleging that Sri Lankan authorities shelled innocent civilians during the long civil war in the country that ended in 2009.

AFP Commissioner Tony Negus said the allegations are being treated as "a matter of urgency" and they include claims that Sri Lanka’s top diplomat in Australia Thisara Samarasinghe, the former Sri Lankan navy chief, was in charge of ships that fired on unarmed civilians as they fled the fighting in the final stages of the civil war.

The issue is a major distraction for Hambantota who are in the final stages of their closely contested bid race to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games and on November 11, the 71 Commonwealth nations and territories will gather at the CGF General Assembly in St Kitts to vote on whether the Gold Coast or the Sri Lankan city will host the competition.

But Hooper said the issue will have no effect on the bid race and that it is not a matter for the CGF to concern themselves with.

"It’s not the Commonwealth Games Federation’s role to speculate on stories about individual nations, and membership of the Commonwealth is a matter for the Commonwealth itself and not the Federation," he told insidethegames.

"In St Kitts next month we’re simply looking forward to the culmination of a very competitive bid process for the hosting of the 2018 Commonwealth Games."

Hambantota are hoping that hosting the 2018 Commonwealth Games will help the country rebuild from the 26-year-long civil war in Sri Lanka which began in 1983 and saw an estimated 100,000 people killed the fight between the Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Earlier this year, the Hambantota bid was forced on the back foot when British broadcaster Channel 4 aired a one-hour documentary in June entitled Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields.

It documented the final stages of the conflict and showed horrific footage including Government soldiers executing bound prisoners; the dead bodies of naked, abused women dumped in a truck and the bombing of civilian hospitals.

Sri Lankan Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage (pictured above right with Hooper) told insidethegames that it was "a completely false documentary" that would have "no bearing on the Hambantota 2018 bid for the Commonwealth Games at all."

But as the latest allegations emerge, the Hambantota 2018 bid have found an unlikely ally in Gold Coast 2018 bid chairman Mark Stockwell who says his team are unconcerned by the issue and simply focused on a great competitor.

"Sri Lanka has just finished 24 years of civil war and there are a lot of people around the world who want to see Sri Lanka get on with life and that’s the thing that I’m really concerned about," said Stockwell.

"I mean they’re a great competitor and we want to run the Commonwealth Games because we love the Games and we love a good sporting event.

"The Sri Lankans are looking at this as a nation building exercise."

Stockwell’s comments come just a week before Perth hosts the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2011 from October 28-30.

It will be hosted by the Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard while Queen Elizabeth, the Head of the Commonwealth and the Patron of the CGF, has already arrived in Australia ahead of the event with husband Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, where she has been warmly greeted by the public.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is also due be in attendance at the meeting where the war crimes allegations are certain to be brought up.

Contact the writer of this story at tom.degun@insidethegames.biz This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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June 2011: Exclusive – Channel 4 war crimes documentary is false claims Sri Lankan Sports Minister

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-9#1Diya2011-10-21 00:03

Sri Lanka should not host the 2018 games, unless it agrees to have an international war crimes investigation. If it has nothing to hide it should allow this to happen, thereafter apply to host the games. If Sri Lanka was allowed the chance to host the game in 2018, it is a shame to all commonwealth nations, on agreeing to allow a country that committed war crimes to host such prestigious game.

The following information is for you reference, I am an ordinary person who has gathered the data, imagine how much the international war tribunal could gather if given the opportunity?

1. In January 2009, the UN spoke of 230 000 IDPs on the move and the ICRC of 250 000 (according to UN reports more than 400 000 civilians lived in the area during November 2008).

2. February, the Government insisted that there were 70 000 internally displayed person in the no fire zone

3. March UN informed according to the satellite image there were at least 150 000- 200 000 civilians (UN also pointed out that the food being supplied was less than a quarter of the monthly 3000 tons needed to feed 200 000 people, it was also barely enough for the so called 70 000 figure mentioned by the Sri Lankan officials)

4. The government insisted 15 000 to 20 000 people were in the No fire Zones (e.g. defence.lk, 30th April 2009, 9.40 AM).

5. The highest number of people reported in the IDP camps were 290 000 on 25th May (it is important to keep in mind that the government mentioned that only 70 000 civilians were left in the no fire zone), so how did the IDP numbers increased more than what the government population which was informed after February.

6. If 70 000 was the figure for the number of people in the war zone area. According to the Sri Lankan governments statement on the 17th May 50 000 civilians were out of the No fire zone, on 18th May 29 000 civilians were out and finally on 20th 1400 injured civilians were out. The government figures do not add up to 70 000, what happened to the 35 000 people left.

These info are based on the following websites. You can have a look too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lankan_IDP_numbers,_May_2009

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2008/08/080815_ai_civilians.shtml

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/24/sri-lanka-tamil-tigers-satellite-images

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alleged_war_crimes_during_the_Sri_Lankan_Civil_War#cite_note-90

+7#2Chinthaka2011-10-21 02:02

Well Said – Mike Hooper!

-This is a sport event and it should NOT interrupt with the rumours and should keep "the true spirit of the sport".

-There is something called "Hambantota2018 CWG bid" as a result of ending the civil war which was prevailed in the island.

-Long live the true Sports spirit, that’s what we all sports lovers expect!

+6#3Straight Talk2011-10-21 02:03

It is ridiculous to insist that Sri Lanka should not host the commonwealth games because of alleged war crimes. The sportspersons who compete in these games did not commit war crimes and sports enthusiasts are not interested in political agendas.

To try and deny a country from hosting an international sporting event on grounds that its leaders committed war crimes is the epitome of crooked, distorted thinking. It is the outcome of an agenda that thinks nothing of lynching a whole nation on grounds that its leaders committed war crimes and are not willing to submit to international scrutiny.

+3#4M.Sivananthan2011-10-21 03:16

Who will look into the crimes of the Aussies against the Natives? Is it OK for a White man to kill and [censored] natives of Australia?

+5#5pam2011-10-21 03:39

Well said Mike Hopper and Mark Stockwell.

May the city with the best bid win the right to hold the games.

The issue here is not whether SL committed war crimes or not. The issue here is who in the world can take the moral high ground and sit on judgement on SL that underwent a 30 year period of brutal terror on her citizens. The Western nations are happy to engage in preemptive wars, killing and maiming millions of citizens in muslim countries, but when a democratically elected government decides to finish off a brutal terror outfit in their own country, then there allegations of "war crimes". Civilians die in every war, let’s remember that, before trying to punish SL for doing what any western nation would have done (going by the proof we have of preemptive wars the west has launched so far).

+5#6KJ2011-10-21 03:44

It’s the British rulers who killed the natives. It’s the same British who massacred 100′s of thousands in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to suppress popular uprisings. The world has changed since and one should not try to mix sports with politics (and the the British with Australians).

+5#7Bruno Umbato2011-10-21 03:46

LTTE rump can deceive lot people including very poweful persons in the west …. But, ther are people like chairman Mark Stockwell who has visited SL and had seen the country through his own eyes could not be decieved by the damn lies of LTTE terrorist rump … Kudos to you, chairman Mark Stockwell for your honest remarks and we need people like you in high places to voice own thoughts rather than mouth pieces of the terrorists for block votes and other benefits …

-3#8Asela Unans2011-10-21 05:40

What? Fighting against terrorism is, was a war crimes? When NATO together with USA, UK France and few other countries bombing and destroying the infrastructures and killing their nations called what?

Also I have my reasonable doubts Hambantota harbor? Sri Lanka /China connection? What so ever Australia is another pain to Sri Lanka. Leave my paradise alone!

-2#9rashan2011-10-21 05:41