TN assembly for international probe on alleged war crimes in N Lanka

A day after India and Sri Lanka decided to renew its efforts to address the vexed ethnic issue in the island nation, Tamil Nadu on Wednesday stepped up pressure on the Narendra Modi government for an international probe against alleged human rights violations and war crimes committed in 2009 in Northern Sri Lanka.

In a resolution adopted in the assembly, the Jayalalithaa government sought diplomatic efforts by India to change any possible pro-Lanka stand adopted by America in the United Nation rights body.

The state government was referring to the reports that United States, which had earlier favoured an international probe into the alleged human rights violations and war crimes during the peak of hostilities in Sri Lanka in 2009, had now altered its stand.

Chief Minister Jayalalithaa told the assembly that the US had now reportedly proposed an internal probe by Colombo at the United Nation Human Rights Council and that it was ‘against natural justice’.

Jayalalithaa moved a resolution in the Tamil Nadu assembly in which the state government sought a more pro-active role from India.

The resolution said that India itself should move a ‘strong resolution’ at the UNHRC along with the US, seeking an international probe against those who had committed human rights violations and war crimes in contravention to the international rules and conventions.

“The Tamil Nadu assembly requests the Government of India that if America takes a stand supportive of Sri Lanka at the UNHRC, then India must take diplomatic efforts to change that,” the resolution, which was unanimously adopted by the House, said.

Jayalalithaa recalled the earlier resolutions in the assembly seeking to stop treating Sri Lanka as a ‘friendly nation’ in the context of the alleged atrocities on ethnic Tamils.

It had also demanded that India boycott a meeting of the heads of Commonwealth nations held in Sri Lanka in 2013, besides insisting that the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government would not allow Sri Lankan players and officials to participate in the Indian Premier League sporting fixtures scheduled in Chennai, which was duly followed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

Earlier, the opposition parties including Dravida Munnetra Kzahagam welcomed the resolution. “This is a timely resolution,” the DMK's senior leader Durai Murugan said.