Airline strike affects C’wealth Heads’ departure schedule

Dinesh Weerawansa in Perth,Australia

The third and final day of the Commonwealth Heads of Governments was affected by the ongoing strike by the Australian carrier Qantas and the deaths of three Australian soldiers with NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Qantas grounded its entire fleet, affecting scheduled departures of as many as 17 heads of government and scores of other delegates and media persons. They are being forced to make alternative travel arrangements after the surprise decision by Qantas to lock out all employees, affecting 70,000 passengers and 600 flights.

The decision embarrassed host Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who took over as chair of CHOGM over the weekend. Gillard told reporters that she had personally briefed the heads of government about the Qantas dispute, adding that “they took it in good spirit”. They are working on alternative travel arrangements.

However, President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his delegation are unaffected as they were to return on a special SriLankan Airlines charter flight which is scheduled to arrive at the BIA in the early hours of today. He will take over the Chair of the Commonwealth from Gillard when Sri Lanka hosts the next CHOGM in 2013. Despite numerous attempts by Tiger proxies and politicians depending on their vote, the Commonwealth leaders reconfirmed Sri Lanka as the host nation of the next CHOGM. At the end of the three-day summit yesterday, the leaders of the Commonwealth insisted that they had made sweeping progress at their biennial meeting after rejecting a controversial reform on human rights recommended by its Eminent Persons Group.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma said the CHOGM 2011 was a success, adding that the 54-nation meeting had been productive as it has been able to adopt a measure that will coordinate global emergency relief efforts to deal with food supply crises. “I had stated that this will be a landmark CHOGM, and it is indeed proven to be one. This CHOGM will be remembered as a CHOGM of reform, renewal and resilience,” he said.

In a landmark decision by the leaders of the Commonwealth, a ban on monarchs to marry Roman Catholics was lifted. They also changed royal succession rules to allow the British monarch’s first-born child - whether a girl or a boy, to ascend the throne, reversing centuries of tradition.

The CHOGM 2011 also decided to explore possibility of getting back Zimbabwe to the Commonwealth while welcoming the interest shown by South Sudan to obtain the membership.

On the eve of her 10-day tour of Australia, Queen Elizabeth II congratulated WA Premier Colin Barnett and the West Australian public for “a most successful” CHOGM. Malaysia has offered to host the 2019 CHOGM.