Thaindian News

New Delhi, March 19 (IANS) A group of Indian activists has urged the government to vote in Geneva in favour of a US-backed resolution attacking Sri Lanka over “war crimes”.

“While the government of Sri Lanka has taken some steps towards strengthening peace, there are specific issues where there has been no tangible progress,” the activists said in a statement.

The statement noted that much of the resolution at the Human Rights Council (HRC) had ideas that India had voiced earlier including those related to national reconciliation following the end of the war in 2009.

It said India too had suggested an independent and credible mechanism to investigate allegations of human rights violations in a time-bound manner.

“The resolution also calls (Colombo) to report back to the HRC on the implementation of the LLRC (Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission) and to accept technical support from the UN to implement it.

“We sincerely hope that the Indian government will follow through on its own statement by supporting this resolution, and (we) strongly urge it to do so,” it said.

Among the signatories to the statement were Anuradha Kapoor, Anusha Hariharan, Bobby Kunhu, Fatima N., Geetanjali Gangoli, Geetha Nambisan, Jayasree Subramanian, Lalita Ramdas, Madhu Mehra, Sheba George, Suneeta Dhar, Tapan Bose and Vasanth Kannabiran.

Sri Lanka faces allegations that it is overlooking “war crimes” against Tamil civilians which took place when the military crushed the Tamil Tigers in 2009.