Coinciding with the current session of the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, members of the Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation (TESO) and other political parties came together here on Thursday to “speak in one voice against the human rights violations and war crimes witnessed in Sri Lanka.”
DMK treasurer M.K. Stalin, who led the seminar under the banner of party-backed TESO, said: “Eelam Tamils demand justice. Tamils require resettlement and rehabilitation very urgently. The world community should think of creating a credible, independent, international inquiry into all the events in Sri Lanka.”
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He said a lasting political solution lies in a referendum.
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Mr. Stalin said the timing of the seminar was significant since it was held in concurrence with the session of the UNHRC where a resolution against Sri Lanka had been tabled for consideration. “Thousands of Tamil have been displaced. Their cultural and religious identities have been eroded and there is a planned attempt to wipe out the Tamil national race from the island so that ‘one race, one language and one religion’ could be conveniently put in place.”
Efforts in 1985
He also spoke about DMK leader M. Karunanidhi’s efforts to start TESO in 1985 to support the attempts to find a lasting solution to the problems of Eelam Tamils. “The DMK has been supporting and campaigning for the cause of Eelam Tamils from 1950 onwards. Our party has organised demonstrations and public meetings, rallies and human chains…”
DMK Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi said the seminar was a way to speak out and bring about justice and reconciliation to the Tamil Eelam people.
Citing the recently released Human Rights Watch report, ‘We Will Teach You a Lesson’, Ms. Kanimozhi said these acts of sexual violence are not random occurrences but carried out to degrade the detainees. “One of the fundamental demands by TESO in its August 2012 meeting was to come up with a credible, independent enquiry into the violations by the Sri Lankan Army,” she said. “Without justice and accountability there cannot be any reconciliation.”
VCK pays homage
The Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi leader Thol.Thirumavalavan paid homage to the thousands of unarmed civilians who were killed and conveyed his condolences to the family of Mani who committed self-immolation in Cuddalore earlier this week.