Sri Lanka and the Commonwealth

I congratulate the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh) on securing the debate and on her remarks. Both she and the right hon. Member for Enfield, North (Joan Ryan) have been tireless in their campaigning in recent weeks and months and it has been a pleasure to work with them to put forward the Tamil case, and the case for human rights and a ceasefire. The hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden shares my anger and the anger of my Tamil constituents and the whole Tamil diaspora, and she is frustrated that nothing seems to be happening. The killing seems to be going on and the humanitarian catastrophe seems to be getting worse, even in the safe areas, as she so graphically described. We have these debates and we ask questions, but I say to the Minister that the frustration is getting deeper every day. People keep hearing about the communities with which they have connections back through the generations being devastated and about family members disappearing and being killed. We have to speak out, and the Government have to speak out far more than they have done to date. I commend the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary on the comments that they made a few weeks ago and for calling for a ceasefire. However, that call has fallen on deaf ears, so we urgently need to take more action. No doubt colleagues have received many reports—not just PR from the Sri Lankan high commission—from Tamil constituents and campaign bodies, and from people who are in the Vanni. One of the most graphic reports that I have received is entitled "Voice of the Voiceless and Helpless People of the Vanni". It talks about the horrific conditions in the so-called safe area. It seems that the Sri Lankan Government have set up not a safe area, but a concentration camp, which it is even prepared to shell. That cannot go without huge criticism from the British Government and the international community. It is a crime, and we must speak out loudly against it. I hope that the Government will take three concrete actions. First, they have not exerted enough pressure through the Commonwealth, which can often act behind the scenes and put moral pressure on Ministers of other Governments. My hon. Friend the Member for North Southwark and Bermondsey (Simon Hughes) said that at the recent meeting in London, the British Government were represented by only a Parliamentary Under-Secretary. The Government could have done more, given that Sri Lankan Government representatives were here in London. [Hywel Williams in the Chair] My hon. Friend and I have discussed whether we should join the calls for Sri Lanka's suspension from the Commonwealth, because that would be a major move and the Commonwealth traditionally uses behind-the-scenes moral pressure. We have come round to the point of view of the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden. We must begin that process, and the leader of my party, my right hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Mr. Clegg), has agreed to write to the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth today asking for an immediate inquiry into the action of the Sri Lankan Government and whether it is compatible with Commonwealth membership, the Harare principles and so on. That inquiry needs to be set up as the start of the process for Sri Lanka's suspension, and I hope that the Minister will join my right hon. Friend in that call to Commonwealth leaders. There should be an investigation, and it should happen now.