Cameron has managed to become the CHOGM headline. He put his day job as a politician ahead of international diplomacy and ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

The Left would be rejoicing in the disruption of CHOGM. However in a world that needs more diplomacy rather than less, it is a very sad business that sees Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma defending CHOGM and trying to promote discussion of CHOGM's outcomes.

<"The Commonwealth is distinguished by the fact that it's a very issues based organisation," Mr Sharma said.

"As far as the outcomes are concerned, you will find at the end of this CHOGM, that it has been very productive, and it has been very meaningful and successful."

Discussions at the summit, including on debt relief for small member countries and financing projects to battle climate change, have been overshadowed by the row over Sri Lanka's alleged rights abuses.

However, Mr Sharma said the level of discussion at the biennial summit in Colombo was in no way lower than in previous years.

"They (delegations) all come with the equal willingness and enthusiasm to contribute to the causes that have brought them here," he said.

"They are countries from all parts of the world, they've got national issues on their mind...they've collective global issues on their mind.">
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-17/an-david-cameron-puts-sri-lanka-on-notice-over-war-crime-allega/5097278

Cameron was about Cameron. Politicians are like that. If he had wanted to achieve real results the diplomatic way was clear and very open to him. Now there is a mess of his making for others to clean up. Just like Kevin Rudd who cynically pushed domestic politics into Australian relations with Indonesia and we are still paying the price.

Foxy,

<< Nothing has improved.>>

NOTHING?

Come now Foxy I think you are doing a bit of David Cameroning (aka exaggerating) there! The UN has been overseeing the return of Tamils from India.

At best Cameron's little outburst might be viewed as grandstanding ...he wouldn't have an election coming up soon, would he?

What is said by *SOME* Tamils (and lots of illegal immigrationists) about Sri Lanka could be said about 3/4 of the commonwealth countries by their own minorities. And you might recall that Amnesty International has made some very uninformed comments on Australian Aboriginal affairs in the recent past.

Tony Abbot ought to be commended for not clinging on the coat tails of the UK

Despite being ousted by the repressive Sri Lankan regime NSW Green Senator Lee Rhiannon found serious ongoing abuses of human and legal rights in Sri Lanka. Abuses Tony Abbott is not interested in hearing about, but then again Abbott himself supports human rights abuse of asylum seekers.

“The Australian Senate has now passed a Greens motion calling on the Prime Minister to act while he is at CHOGM and raise the issue of an independent investigation into allegations of violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law with the President of Sri Lanka."

http://lee-rhiannon.greensmps.org.au/content/media-releases/australian-senate-calls-pm-abbott-raise-sri-lanka%E2%80%99s-human-rights-abuses-chogm

Its good to see we have at least one Senator from NSW who is prepared to fight for human rights in Sri Lanka, well done Lee.

Dear SPQR,

My next door neighbours are from Sri Lanka
and they've recently returned from Columbo
visiting their family. We've heard first hand
accounts of the supposed "improvements"
in the country. So what I've been stating comes
straight from people who know what they're talking
about. Perhaps you need to see the film that I
mentioned in my earlier post. Still, to each his
own. Stalin also gave Bertrand Russell a tour of
Russia (VIP treatment of course) and Mr Russell
wrote an extremely glowing report on his return.
I dare say Mr Abbott, et al, are receiving the
same sort of VIP treatment from the Sri Lankan
government.

Dear Poirot and Suse,

I am embarrassed by our PM.
I thought that he's now been given a chance
to shine - but goodness me, the man has no light
whatsoever and simply makes one cringe every time
he opens his mouth. It's so rehearsed and simplistic.
An insult to our (and everyone else's) intelligence.
He's even given boats to Sri Lanka that will now be used
by their government to persecute and catch people attempting
to flee. He's actually helping the government do their
evil work. Nice.

Let's face it guys...

Tony Abbott is in no position to criticise Sri lanka for its human rights abuses....while he's busy running little gulags of his own.