The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) summit opened on Friday with a combative Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, under attack over alleged rights violations in the war against the LTTE, asking countries not to turn the Commonwealth into a "punitive and judgemental" grouping or indulge in "prescriptive" ways.
Rajapaksa used the opportunity of welcoming delegates to the three-day summit to reiterate the message that Sri Lanka has nothing to answer for on human rights, an issue that has cast a cloud over the meet.
Undaunted by a boycott by some leaders and the raging debate on rights violations, Rajapaksa did not directly refer to concerns raised by certain member countries but made a veiled reference to them in his speech.
