MDMK general secretary Vaiko on Monday urged the Indian government to change its position in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in favour of an independent international investigation into the alleged genocide of Tamils by the Sri Lankan armed forces in 2009.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said that in the ongoing session of the UNHRC in Geneva, the Indian government should not continue the wrong stance taken by the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. “India should not support Sri Lanka on any account. A stand in favour of Sri Lanka would cause unbearable agony to the Tamils across the world,” he said.
According to him, since 1955, Sri Lanka unleashed unprecedented attacks on Tamils in North and East leading to ethnic cleansing and genocide. “While the BJP government led by A.B. Vajpayee decided against offering military assistance to Sri Lanka in an all- party meeting in 1999, the unanimous decision was given up by the Congress-led UPA government and India extended all kinds of military support to Sri Lanka,” he alleged.
Recalling the Sri Lankan government’s refusal to cooperate with the international jurists’ investigation into war crimes, he said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had stated that at least one lakh Tamils were killed in the conflict between separatists and the Sri Lankan armed forces.
