Tamil body asks India not to oppose UN probe

Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka, that country’s Northern Provincial Council (NPC) has urged India to alter its position on an independent UN investigations into war crimes against Tamils.

In an official communiqué to Modi, a copy of which is available with Deccan Herald, NPC councillor Shivajilingam has also called on India to help solve other issues such as repatriation of displaced Tamil people, demilitarising the northeastern region and return lands taken from the Tamils.

“India should change its position of opposing the UN independent investigation on Sri Lanka, and (should instead) support such investigation. It is our only hope for justice, accountability and protection,” Shivajilingam said.

Stating that expectations among Tamils in northeastern Sri Lanka are running high on getting political solution to the issues at stake ahead of his visit, Shivajilingam, also a former Parliamentarian, said: “the Tamil people in the Northeast as well as our brethren in Tamil Nadu and in the diaspora overwhelmingly support and call for the UN independent investigation on Sri Lanka”.

He urged Modi to initiate steps for a permanent political solution jointly facilitated, mediated and underwritten by India, the EU, the US and UN, insisting that such a solution must be based on the Oslo declaration in which the Tamils and Sri Lanka agreed to explore political solution under a federal structure (on December 5, 2002).