Paul Dewar, a Member of Parliament and candidate for the leadership of the New Democratic Party in Canada, has released a statement urging the Commonwealth to hold Sri Lanka to account for alleged war crimes.

He joined Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in his call for an independent investigation into war crimes in Sri Lanka and called to boycott the next CHOGM unless Sri Lanka had made progress on human rights.

Dr Gideon Boas, Associate Professor in the Monash University Law School and a former Senior Legal Officer at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, writes on Australia’s response to war crimes charges filed in a local court against Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa:

The Sri Lankan government dismissed human rights concerns raised by delegates at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, Australia, this week as "propaganda" from the Eelam Tamil diaspora, referred to as the "LTTE rump".

Speaking on Thursday to the ABC news channel, the Sri Lankan president's spokesperson, Bandula Jayasekera, said,

"This is hearsay. These are mere allegations... we have ended 30 years of terror."

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a former British Foreign Secretary and member of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group, wrote in The Times on Monday:

“Commonwealth heads of government are meeting in Australia this week. During the anti-apartheid struggles, such a summit would have been an event of world importance. On this occasion the world will hardly notice.

"How many more lives will it take before the government acts to end mandatory detention?

"How absolutely tragic, but how telling, that an accepted refugee could feel despair enough to take their own life in a detention centre."

Yet more photographs documenting executions, extrajudicial killings and the degradation of Tamil women have emerged said the president of the International Commission of Jurists Australia, John Dowd QC, on Wednesday.

Dowd confirmed the damning evidence had been mailed to him, and he had passed on the evidence to the Australian Federal Police.

Describing the shocking images, Dowd said,

India and Australia have confirmed separately that they will not seek a change of venue for the 2013 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, due to be held in Sri Lanka.

Prime Minister Gillard reassured Sri Lankan President Rajapakse at a meeting in Perth that there will be no debate on Sri Lanka hosting the next CHOGM.

"My understanding is there is no intention to revisit the question of hosting of the next CHOGM meeting," she said.

Australia's foreign minister, Kevin Rudd, urged the UN Human Rights Council to examine allegations of war crimes in Sri Lanka.

Drawing attention to Sri Lanka's 'LLRC report', due out next month, Rudd reiterated the importance of addressing the concerns raised in the report by the UN panel of experts earlier this year.

Australian Federal Attorney-general, Robert Mc Clelland, has halted the criminal proceedings against Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, citing diplomatic immmunity.
 
Mc Clelland's spokesperson explained that Commonwealth laws extended immunities to heads of state and heads of diplomatic missions. 

The national carrier of Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan Airlines, is at serious risk from being barred from entering European airspace due to safety concerns by the European Aviation Authority.

Sri Lanka’s The Island reported the airline is on ‘virtual notice’ and safety audits on the carrier’s planes have become almost mandatory at European airports.

The barring of the airlines from Europe will have serious implications for the future of the airline, as a huge proportion of its flights operate to and from Europe.