New Delhi, Mar 17: A group of Tamil protesters sat on a day's hunger strike here today demanding an independent probe into the Sri Lankan war crimes and urge the Indian government to back the US sponsored resolution against Colombo.
The U.N. Human Rights Council had last year adopted a United States-sponsored resolution demanding that Sri Lanka ensure government troops who committed war crimes during the final stages of its war against Tamil rebels are brought to justice.
The U.S. believes Sri Lanka has failed to do that, and this month it will repeat its actions at the same forum. Both the US and the UK are trying to exert pressure on Colombo, expressing concern over attacks on journalists, activists and lawyers.
The protesters said they had organized this small hunger strike with an aim to draw the attention of the government towards the issue.
“There are a lot of protests going on in Tamil Nadu and I can see that in Delhi there is no reaction from the central government. So “, said Murugesan, one of the protesters.
“We would like to request the government of India to vote against this American resolution and India needs to put a new resolution which will require an independent multi-national probe, excluding Asian countries, into war crimes”, Murugesan added.
According to a UN panel report, tens of thousands of civilians were reportedly killed in 2009 in the final months of the war, as government troops advanced on the ever-shrinking northern tip of the island controlled by Tamil rebels fighting for an independent homeland.
The 30-year-long civil war between the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels who at one time controlled large swathes of the north of the island state is estimated to have left tens of thousands of people dead or injured.
