If the Sri Lankan government has nothing to hide, it should have no objection in allowing the UN delegation to look into the alleged rights violations and war crimes committed during the civil war, AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa said on Thursday.
Recalling the reports about appointment of a three-member panel by Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki Moon, she said that at a time when the State government and its Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi had forsaken the Tamil people, the world peace body and its head had not. A former Indonesian attorney general is heading the panel. The other two legal experts are from the USA and South Africa.
“The act of the UN chief gives us confidence that all is not lost for the Tamil race and people,” she said in a statement.
Ms. Jayalalithaa criticised denial of visas to the UN delegation by Sri Lanka, saying that the act smacked of guilt.
Recalling the fast observed by Mr. Karunanidhi demanding the ceasefire and his subsequent announcement that “he had received information from Sri Lanka that the war had stopped”, she said the unfortunate Tamil civilians believed him and came out of their underground bunkers thinking the war had indeed ended. More than 50,000 civilians died in just two days, she claimed.
