United Nations resolution criticizing Sri Lanka threatens stability of India’s government
(Arun Sankar K./ Associated Press ) – Indian Tamil activists and students shout slogans while trying to push past a barricade during a protest against Sri Lanka’s alleged wartime abuses, in Chennai, India, Tuesday, March 19, 2013. A key ethnic Tamil political party withdrew from the ruling Indian government Tuesday over its unmet demands that India amend the U.N. resolution to declare that Sri Lanka committed genocide against its minority Tamil population during the final months of its civil war against the Tamil Tiger rebels.
A U.N. investigation into the final months of the war indicated the ethnic Sinhalese-dominated government might have killed as many as 40,000 minority Tamil civilians. The Tamil Tigers had been fighting for a breakaway Tamil state in northern Sri Lanka.Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said the government was still considering its position on the U.N. vote, adding that any resolution by Parliament would require a consultation with its other government allies, a process the Congress party had already begun. He insisted the DMK’s withdrawal would not topple the government, even though the coalition is already a minority government that leans heavily on small regional parties and is routinely held hostage to their pet interests.National elections are not expected until next year.The DMK accused the government of diluting a draft Sri Lanka resolution sponsored by the United States and ignoring the Tamil party’s concerns.“It will be a big harm to the Tamil race for the DMK to continue in government,” said the party’s leader, M. Karunanidhi.Several Tamil legislators, from the DMK and an opposition party, disrupted Parliament, storming the well and chanting, “We want justice.”However, Karunanidhi left open the possibility of rejoining the government, saying, “We are ready to change our opinion” if the demands are met.
The U.N. draft resolution, posted on a U.N. website late Monday, calls on Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations of its own war commission and take action to ensure justice and reconciliation in the country.
It also calls for the implementation of recommendations issued last month by the U.N.’s top human rights official, Navi Pillay, who accused the government of failing to investigate reports of widespread killings and other war-time atrocities. Pillay’s report said opposition leaders were being killed or abducted in Sri Lanka. It also questioned the government’s commitment to postwar justice and urged Sri Lankan authorities to allow international experts to investigate allegations of human rights violations.
Rights group Amnesty International also blamed India for pushing for a weak U.N. resolution.
“There is a lot of evidence in this draft resolution to clearly show the imprint of Indian influence. There is a significant downgrading of the international community’s concerns regarding human rights violations in Sri Lanka,” G. Ananthapadmanabhan, the head of Amnesty International in India, said in a statement.
The rights council passed a similar resolution last year that human rights campaigners accuse Sri Lanka of largely ignoring.
Ananthapadmanabhan said the new resolution is especially weak given new information about possible war crimes that has come to light since last year.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi declined to comment on the DMK’s withdrawal, but earlier Tuesday called for an “independent and credible” inquiry.
“We are anguished by reports of unspeakable atrocities on innocent civilians and children, especially during the last days of the conflict in 2009,” she said, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
A Sri Lanka spokesman denied that his government was involved in genocide.
“This is far from the truth,” Keheliya Rambukwella said.
He also dismissed the events in neighboring India.
“We don’t get involved in provincial politics of another country,” he said.
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Associated Press writer Krishan Francis in Colombo, Sri Lanka, contributed to this report.
Tamil inam dhrogi chidambarama serupal addikanum.
I bow my head in respect to the students and proud people of Tamil Nadu for rising up for the humanity and the Eelam Tamils. For the ‘Hindu’ newspaper ‘wallahs’ and the some former Indian intelligence officers who curry favour to the ‘south block’, this would have been a rude ‘shock’. Because they were the ones who said at some point in the early 2009 at the height of the massacres ‘ The current TN generation is very busy with their day to day lives.. being a more career oriented society.. so they don’t feel the same way towards eelam tamils as they used to feel in the 1980’s’. The rise of the new generation Tamil nadu students along the same lines as those of their previous generation in the 1980’s is a victory for the humanity and tamils as a whole.
Let us build the grass root solidarity not only for ourselves, but for all oppressed nations.
Create chairs, Trusts in Annamalai University and Tamil University sponsored by Tamils in US to fund study of Tamil, Tamil History, Tamil Music, Tamil Nationhood etc This will be the service diaspora can do to the Tamils in India.
Help create, sponsor, fund scholarships and chairs for Tamil Music, Tamil History and Language, Translation and Scientific Tamil in Annamalai University and other Tamil insititutes in Tamil Nadu. This is how you can thank them