President of the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) Gajendrakuamar Ponnambalam left for Geneva on Friday (9), to hand over a petition, bearing 200,000 signatures, urging the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to engage in investigating war crimes allegations.
The signatures, which are being collected at the moment, will be taken to Geneva by Selvaraja Gajendrakumar, who, together with Ponnabalam, will hand them over to the Council.
A lawyer and former Parliamentarian, Ponnambalam whose party secured nearly 80 seats at the recent LG polls in the Jaffna District alone, left for Geneva with the intention of urging the UN member countries to push the Council to get Sri Lanka work on its initial promise, to investigate war crimes with international judges. But the Government had managed to convince the Council to make it a local mechanism.
The TNPF conducted a signature campaign in the North and in the East and has now begun gathering those signature sheets that would be handed over to the UNHRC. The signatories urge the United Nation Security Council to investigate accountability on the alleged war crimes.
One of Ponnambalam’s Party men in Jaffna pointed out that roughly around 200,000 signatures had been collected and it would be submitted at the UNHRC session by former MP and Secretary of the TNPF Selvaraja Gajendrakumar, who will be leaving soon for Geneva.
“The petition calling the UN Security Council to handle the alleged war crime accountability will reach Geneva before the Review on Sri Lanka is taken up,” said a member of the TNPF.
The two will be participating in side events and lobbying to convince the international community to resort to the early Resolution to have international players in probing the accountability issue.
One of the TNPF members told Ceylon Today that despite there being a claim that Russia and China will veto the SC, still, the TNPF is of the view that come what may, it would go ahead doing its duty, as promised to their people, in brining justice to the missing persons.