Welcoming the report of UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) chief Navi Pillay indicting Sri Lanka’s poor track record in probing war crimes, PMK leader and former Union minister Anbumani Ramadoss said this conclusively proved that Colombo’s promises to bring out the truth have been observed only in their breach.
Participating in ongoing the UNHRC meet at Geneva, Anbumani said given the fact that Sri Lanka could not be trusted in carrying out a fair investigation, an independent international probe has become necessary. In the upcoming session of the UN in March, India should sponsor the resolution for such an investigation, he added.
In a media release, Anbumani said Pillay’s report indicted Colombo on many counts. “The report exposed Sri Lanka placing hurdles on the investigations it was expected to carry out as per the resolution of the last UNHRC meeting. Navi Pillay found that the Rajapaksa regime had not taken any initiative on this front,” he said. Though the UNHRC accepted Pillay’s recommendation to establish a fact finding mechanism to secure justice for the gross rights violations there, Colombo is yet to positively respond to it.
Earlier on Wedenesday, addressing the UNHRC meeting, Anbumani charged Colombo with being engaged in a programme of forced sterilization of Lankan Tamil women. Quoting reports from human rights groups and ‘WikiLeaks’, he said such acts fell within the ambit of ‘genocide’. “As a physician, I find it outrageous and morally reprehensible that the Sri Lankan government is using basic health services needed by a vulnerable population for coercive population control,” he said and emphasized the need for a credible independent probe into the right abuses.