As some members of the committee may know, Canada has been providing funding for the translation into Tamil of the reports of the LLRC, for example, so that Tamil Sri Lankans can have access to those documents and understand them, and they can therefore assess how they might engage.
I don't think there would be any concern on my part if there was a proposal made by the Sri Lankan government for assistance with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for example. I'd be surprised if Canada and others were not prepared to be constructive. I do know from my time in the country the South Africans have been giving substantial advice and counsel to their Sri Lankan colleagues about how one might structure this kind of truth and reconciliation commission, and they have offered substantive assistance.
So I think the Commonwealth if it were properly engaged would not have been worrying about the logistics of a conference and who sits where. Rather, real progress on these issues is where the Commonwealth should be playing a much more activist role than it is as we sit here today.