In late October 2013, the
Indian State Government of Tamil Nadu passed a unanimous resolution requesting the
Indian Prime Minister to boycott CHOGM 2013 on accounts of the violence and
repression being perpetrated against the Tamils in Sri Lanka. This resolution asked
that India seek the temporary suspension of Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth till it
takes steps to grant Tamils equal rights with the Sinhalese. This was the third such
resolution passed by the Tamil Nadu Government. Thozhar Thyagu, a veteran Tamil
activist in India underwent a fast unto death in September-October 2013 which he
only relinquished after the Indian Prime Minister wrote to the leader of the DMK in
Tamil Nadu, Mr. M.K. Karunanidhi promising that he would take the concerns of the
Tamils into mind when making a decision on whether to attend. India is yet to make
public its decision on whether to attend CHOGM 2013 or not.
In Malaysia, Lim Guan Eng Chief Minister of the state of Penang, and the Secretary
General of the Democratic Action Party called on the Malaysian government to
boycott the meet in order to protest the human violations committed by Sri Lanka
against ethnic Tamils there. He noted that beyond just the killings, thousands of
Tamils who disappeared during the civil war had not been accounted for by the
government, while those responsible for the rapes against Tamil women and girls had
not been brought to justice.
The New Zealand Greens Party also placed
similar calls for a boycott and for another to replace Sri Lankan President Mahinda
Rajapakse as the Commonwealth Chairperson-in-office for the next two years.
The TGTE petitioned the UK Foreign Affairs Select Committee requesting that the
UK desist from attending CHOGM 2013. In mid October the UK Foreign Affairs
Committee of the House of Commons criticized the British Foreign Committee Office
(FCO) for its ‘timid and inconsistent’ position regarding holding the CHOGM in Sri
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