Following the release of the report by the United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday about the horrific levels of human rights violations and abuses in Sri lanka between 2002 and 2011, the Tamil Nadu legislative Assembly adopted a unanimous resolution asking the Union Government to call for an International probe into the human right violations by the Sri lankan Government.
In a rare show of unity, the ruling AIADMK and its eternal enemy, the DMK, spoke in unison asking the Central Government to toughen its stand in the UNHRC meeting if the United States of America soften its stance on Sri lanka. Interestingly, the Tamil Nadu Assembly resolution comes hardly 24 hours after the Governments of India and Sri lanka decided to strengthen defence ties and economic cooperation between the two nations. Ranil Wickremesinghe, the newly elected Prime Minister of Sri lanka is on a three-day State visit to India and had held wide ranging discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday.
The resolution adopted in the Tamil Nadu Assembly demanded that India should move a string resolution at the UNHRC seeking international probe against those who committed human rights violations and war crimes in violation of international conventions. There were reports that the US may not push for an international probe and would be happy with the internal probe to be ordered by the lankan Government.
Jayalalithaa reminded the members about a resolution adopted by the Tamil Nadu legislature in 2012 asking the Union Government to stop considering Sri lanka as a friendly nation and pressurising the International community of nations to declare economic embargo against the island nation. But the Tamil Nadu resolution is silent about the atrocities committed by the lTTE against the Tamils and Sinhala people.
The Wickremesinghe Government had told the UNHRC meeting on Tuesday that it was launching various measures including the setting up of Truth Commission, Judicial Commission, Office for Reparations, Office for Tracing Missing Persons and anti-terrorism law in consonance with international norms.