Mumbai/Chennai/Coimbatore, Mar 20: Protests were taken out today in different places of India over Sri Lankan war crimes and calling for a strong UN resolution to independently probe the perpetrators of such heinous crimes.
Effigies of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa were burnt at such places.
MDMK general secretary Vaiko Gopalsamy demanded an independent international probe against the alleged genocide by Sri Lankan army.
“Our demand is very clear, there should be independent international investigation against the crime of genocide committed by the racial Sri Lankan government and before a settlement is brought out, army and police should be withdrawn from Tamil populated areas”, said Vaiko.
Mahinda Rajapaksa is under fire from the U.N. Human Rights Council, which 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.
In Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, lawyers were seen venting ire by protesting on streets.
Lawyers burnt the effigy of Rajapaksa and raised slogans.
The 30-year-long civil war between the Sri Lankan army 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.
International investigators, whose findings have been rejected by the Sri Lankan authorities, have said the army committed large-scale abuses and was responsible for many civilian deaths in the final stages of the war.
The International Commission of Jurists said that the failure to submit those abuses and others committed by the Tigers to a court was a symptom of the overall lack of accountability in the country, where rights groups say abductions and attacks on media are also common.
In Chennai, protesting lawyers shouted slogans and said they would intensify the protest throughout Tamil Nadu.
“We are going to intensify our struggle. Our demand is Indian government should interfere immediately in the situation,” said president of Madras High Court Bar Association, Mohan Krishnan.
