DHAKA: Mauritius prime minister announced Tuesday he will stay away from this week’s Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka because of the host’s poor human rights record.

Mauritius joins India by refusing to send a premier to Sri Lanka, which is accused of widespread human rights abuses and the killing of tens of thousands of civilians during its 2009 defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels. Canada is totally boycotting the summit.

‘This is a decision taken by a sovereign Mauritius in the face of the absence of progress in Sri Lanka on the respect of human rights,’ prime minister Navin Chandra Ramgoolam told the Mauritian Parliament.

He said that Mauritius, which will host the next Commonwealth Summit in 2015, believed that ‘human rights are more important than everything else’, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1829 HRS, NOV 12, 2013
RoR/RK