TNA supports US-backed rights resolution on Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka's main Tamil party Tamil National Alliance has backed a United States-sponsored resolution to censure Colombo at the ongoing session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

"The TNA fully supports action by the council as a first and necessary step towards ensuring peace, justice and reconciliation in Sri Lanka," said a statement from the Tamil National Alliance.

The draft resolution calls for implementation of Sri Lanka's own reconciliation commission recommendations, request the government to present an action plan detailing the steps government has taken to implement the recommendations and encourages the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights to provide technical assistance to Sri Lanka towards implementation.

The US action is being branded by Colombo as interference and as a devious plan by the Western nations to undermine Sri Lanka's sovereignty. Hence, the TNA action to back the resolution would be seen as an act of hostility by the Sri Lankan government, analysts noted.

The TNA urges the UNHRC that they must act urgently to prevent Sri Lanka from sliding again towards a repetition of the bloody separatist conflict where the LTTE on behalf of the Tamil minority fought a three decade old war to create a separate homeland.

"The principle of complementarity in international law requires that where a state is unwilling or unable to institute credible measures to advance justice in keeping with its commitments, international mechanisms must be activated," it said.

The TNA branded as proxies of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has been engaging the government of the President Mahinda Rajapaksa at direct talks aimed at achieving a political solution for the Tamil grievances.