CHOGM set to begin in Sri Lanka amidst boycott calls

Sri Lanka is all set to host the three-day Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) today amidst boycott calls over allegations of war crimes.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa will chair the three-day summit in Colombo.

The agenda for the three-day summit, which will be opened by Britain's Prince Charles, includes sessions on debt restructuring and climate change.

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid will lead the Indian delegation in the absence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Canada and Mauritius are boycotting the 53-nation event over concerns of the human rights record of the host country.

Sri Lanka's main opposition party, the UNP, has also announced a boycott of the opening ceremony to protest what they have called government's undemocratic and violent conduct.

The Sri Lankan government, which defeated the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009, has come under increasing pressure from the international community to try those responsible for rights abuses during the nearly three-decade-long conflict.

Groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have called on the 53-member CHOGM, which includes Britain and its former colonies, not to attend, or to send a low-level delegation, to the island nation.

As many as 40,000 civilians were killed in the last months of the conflict, as government troops advanced on the last stronghold of the rebels fighting for an independent homeland, a United Nations (UN) panel said in 2011.

Earlier on November 13, around 100 protesters blocked the train in which a UK TV crew was travelling, trying to get to the north of Sri Lanka.

The U.N. Human Rights Council has urged Sri Lanka to allow an independent body to investigate the alleged war crimes.

Colombo has rejected the allegations and resisted pressure to allow an independent commission to investigate its military, saying a range of recommendations made by its own reconciliation body are being implemented.

Political violence has eased since Sri Lanka crushed the rebellion, but international rights groups say rule of law problems persist, including abductions and attacks on media and government critics.