The Northern Provincial Council (NPC) today adopted a resolution calling for an international investigation into alleged acts of genocide committed against the Tamils.
NPC member M.K Sivajilingham told the Colombo Gazette that the resolution, which he had attempted to submit to the council on several occasions over the past one year, was amended and proposed to the Council today by Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran.
The Tamil National Alliance had earlier felt that the resolution was too strong and should be amended and held back till the UN-led investigations on the war in Sri Lanka concludes.
Sivajilingham said that the 11 page amended resolution was unanimously passed by the NPC after a debate and statements were made in the council today.
The resolution notes that the obligation to prevent and punish genocide under the Genocide Convention is not a matter of political choice or calculation, but one of binding customary international law.
In the resolution, the NPC urged the team appointed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate the war in Sri Lanka, to comprehensively investigate and report on the charge of genocide in its submission to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2015.
“During the war, government military forces engaged in deliberate aerial, artillery, and naval bombardment of civilian areas and also used prohibited weapons and ammunitions, such as cluster bombs. According to UN estimates, 60 100,000 Tamil civilians were killed over the course of the 27-year-long war. The large scale and severe nature of the genocide also forced many Tamils to flee the NorthEast Provinces and seek refuge in Tamil Nadu and Western countries,” the resolution said.
It also said that the UN Security Council should refer the situation in Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court for prosecutions based on war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide adding that alternatively or concurrently, domestic courts in countries that may exercise universal jurisdiction over the alleged events and perpetrators, including but not limited to the United States, should prosecute these crimes. (Colombo Gazette)