G8 Summit left Sri Lanka on agenda

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other G8 leaders are convening at L'Aquila, Italy, to discuss the global economic crisis, climate change, energy security and aid for Africa. Curiously, the humanitarian crisis resulting from the civil war in Sri Lanka, which ended in May with a series of bloody battles that crushed the rebel Tamil Tigers and displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians, has been left off the summit agenda.

With a huge Tamil population conservatively estimated to be 100,000 people, Toronto is reportedly home to the world's largest Tamil diaspora. And that community is intent on shaping Canadian foreign policy toward Sri Lanka

Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon has made some strong pronouncements on the humanitarian crisis. For example, in a joint statement issued in May, Cannon and U. S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called upon the government of Sri Lanka to grant humanitarian groups full access to displaced persons camps in the north.

Cannon also expressed concern "about overcrowding and limitations on shelter, clean water and sanitation in the internally displaced persons camps." And he has good reason to be worried: The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that an estimated 281,000 civilians are living in a network of cramped, dirty camps in northern Sri Lanka. Yet the G8 foreign ministers failed to issue a statement about Sri Lanka at the conclusion of their recent meeting in Italy. The omission was surprising given that they issued a joint statement in April expressing "deep concern" about the "deteriorating humanitarian situation in Northern Sri Lanka."