“Britain should have joined Canada in taking a principled stand” and boycotted the Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka this week,” The Independent newspaper said in its editorial Monday.

Titled “The Commonwealth should not be conferring legitimacy on a regime with blood on its hands,” the editorial (see full text here) urged Mr. Cameron to take up Sri Lanka at the CHOGM summit.

British Premier David Cameron should have boycotted the Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka, the New Statesman magazine said in its editorial Monday, titled 'Sri Lanka is a rogue state'.

Photographs DailyMirror.lk

The Channel 4 News team was met by Sri Lankan protesters demonstrating outside the airport and their hotels, including one notable one by the 'Movement to Promote National Harmony', as they arrived in Sri Lanka ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), today.

"Four years on and still the Sri Lankan state has not been held accountable for these war crimes, crimes against humanity and most importantly crimes of genocide. Instead, they are being given time and space to commit more atrocities in the name of ‘reconciliation’, through which the Tamil nation is continuing to face structural genocide."

The Sri Lankan government has hardened its stance on a lease agreement with the Indian Oil Corporation.

The Indian company is trying to set up a bitumen plant in the northeast, however Sri Lanka has not signed the 10-year old agreement.

Foreign media who have arrived in Sri Lanka to cover the Commonwealth summit, will be restricted to reporting on CHOGM related events only, said Media Secretary Charitha Herath.

“There will be no restrictions on travel within Sri Lanka for foreign media personnel who arrive in the country for CHOGM, but only as tourists,” he said.

“However, those who come as part of the official delegations of various countries, can carry out media related activities and will get accreditation to cover only CHOGM related events.”