US resolution against Sri Lanka passed at UNHRC

The resolution now calls for a "credible, and independent" investigation into the human rights violations, replacing Sri Lanka with each state.

GENEVA: India today voted in favour of a US sponsored UN Human Rights Council resolution against Sri Lanka. 25 members voted in favour of the resolution, 13 against while eight abstained from the vote.

"India votes for Resolution on Promoting Reconciliation and Accountability in Sri Lanka," India's external affairs ministry spokesperson said on Twitter.

India's envoy Dilip Sinha made a strongly worded statement on Sri Lanka. "It is vital that Sri Lanka addresses issues like missing persons, detainees, and the return of private lands by military," Sinha said, adding that the measures taken so far were unsatisfactory.

"India is Sri Lanka's closest neighbour and shares thousands of years of relationship. We cannot be but untouched by what happens in Sri Lanka," he added.

The resolution now calls for a "credible, and independent" investigation into the human rights violations, replacing Sri Lanka with "each state".

The resolution also encourages "to cooperate with special procedures mandate holders and to respond formally to their outstanding requests, including by extending invitations and providing access".

The first two changes will address India's concern over the resolution not infringing on sovereignty and there is no "intrusive provisions" of international investigations.

Consistent with Indian position, the emphasis on international observers getting unfettered access is gone.

The latest draft is much softer than the resolution United Nations Human Rights Council adopted last year on Lanka, but from a foreign policy point of view, it is in India's interest.

The latest draft of the US resolution on Sri Lanka may be acceptable to most countries, including Sri Lanka, but in terms of state politics, it pushes DMK into a corner. 

Driven mostly by domestic political compulsions, New Delhi pushed for amendments to ensure UN-sponsored resolution on Sri Lanka sends a "resolute message" to the island nation.

The Indian amendments will reflect the views of the political parties and its New Delhi's concerns for the Tamil minority population and their plight, government sources said.

"India's position has always been and remains that the UNHRC should adopt a strong resolution that would send a resolute message to Sri Lanka and goad Sri Lanka to accept an independent and credible investigation," finance minister P Chidambaram said.

He said the government had begun the process of formulating amendments to the draft resolution before the UNHRC.

The UN Human Rights Council has called on Sri Lanka to investigate human rights violations during and after the war. The government says it has been implementing the recommendations via a local commission as requested by the United Nations.

Last year, India had voted against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC.

A photo that caused re-ignited the fire

Photographs of the son of the leader of the Tamil Tiger rebels showed he was murdered, and not killed in the cross fire during the chaotic end of Sri Lanka's three decade war, a British-based documentary maker said.

If confirmed, the accusation would leave the Sri Lankan government with more questions to answer about allegations of systematic executions at the end of the war, especially given Balachandran Prabakaran was just 12.

Tens of thousands of civilians were killed in 2009 in the final months the war, a U.N. panel said, as government troops advanced on the ever-shrinking northern tip of the island controlled by Tamil rebels fighting for an independent homeland.

The UN panel said it had "credible allegations" that Sri Lankan troops and the Tamil Tigers both carried out atrocities and war crimes, and singled out the government for most of the responsibility for the deaths.

Sri Lanka has rejected all rights abuse allegations.

One of the photographs obtained from anonymous sources by Britain's Channel 4 showed Balachandran, son of Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabakaran, being given a snack and some water after being captured. Another shows him dead.

Digital image analysis indicates the photographs were taken by the same camera, suggesting he was killed deliberately, said Callum Macrae, director of the Channel 4 documentary "No fire zone: The killing fields of Sri Lanka".

"They prove that Balachandran was not killed in crossfire, or in a battle. His death was deliberate and calculated," Macrae wrote in The Hindu, an Indian daily.

The government has said Balachandran and many rebel leaders were killed in crossfire.

Macrae said the photographs formed a part of new evidence in the documentary that will be shown for the first time next month in Geneva, to coincide with a United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) meeting.

Political violence has eased since Sri Lanka's army crushed the Tamil separatist rebellion, but international human rights groups say rule of law problems persist, including abductions and attacks on media and government critics.

The Sri Lankan army said allegations of these nature tended to surface around the time of UNHRC meetings and die down afterwards.