The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) on Wednesday demanded that India act immediately on a United Nations report indicting the Sri Lankan government for “war crimes” and spearhead an international movement to procure equal rights for Tamils in the island nation.
In a statement here, AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa said the report of the three-member UN panel was officially released on Monday amidst great pressure and lobbying to suppress it. “With the UN report practically confirming human rights violations that was earlier in the realm of speculation or dismissed as biased or partisan reportage, the Indian government should now move the United Nations to initiate necessary steps to bring (President) Mahinda Rajapaksa to trial for war crimes and genocide, along with his generals, senior ministers and all others who were party to the brutal excesses.”
India could no longer remain a silent spectator, Ms. Jayalalithaa said, adding that India should spearhead a movement to pressurise Sri Lanka to ensure that all people in that country were treated .
“If necessary, an economic blockade will have to be resorted to, to bring a recalcitrant Sri Lanka to heel,” she said. If India continued to maintain its “ominous silence”, it would only add grist to the claim that it supported Mr. Rajapaksa's “policy of converting the Tamil population of Sri Lanka into refugees in their own land”, the former Chief Minister said.
