Malaysian politician to form Committee on genocide in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 August 2010, 14:26 GMT]
Deputy Chief Minister of Penang, and human rights advocate, Prof. Ramasamy, is to form an international committee to collect evidence on the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka, with the aim of presenting a case to the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Panel, a Malaysian companian site to the Sun newspaper said Sunday. "The group will also fight for human rights anywhere, in places where people are deprived of their rights and privileges," said the Batu Kawan MP who is a long-time human right activist.

The report on war crimes committed during hostilities between the Tamil Tigers rebels and the Sri Lanka government would also be presented to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, the paper said quoting Prof. Ramasamy.

Ramasamy said that those involved, including leaders in the Sri Lankan and Indian governments who were responsible for the genocide, should be brought to book.

"The group, comprising NGOs, activists and politicians, is expected to be operational within a few months," Prof. Ramasamy added.

Early this month a group of Tamil expatriate organizations led by Swiss Committee of Eelam Tamils (SCET) filed a case in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against Germany for approving appointment of an ex-Major General who was widely believed to have committed war crimes as the ambassador of Sri Lanka in Germany.

According to the President of SCET, the same group is also expected to file a criminal complaint based on new evidence requesting under Article 15 for the issuance of an arrest warrant for dual Sri Lankan-United States national Gotabaya Rajapakse for war-crimes at the International Criminal Court (ICC). The request, in addressing the non-signatory status of Sri Lankan and the United States to the Rome Statute, draws on jus cogens and universal jurisdiction logic to bring war crimes perpetrated in Sri Lanka within the jurisdiction of the Court.

The formation of the Malaysia's genocide committee follows a similar effort by the Dublin war-crimes tribunal, conducted by Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) based in Milan, which held hearings on Janaruy this year on war-crime charges on Sri Lanka from eye-witnesses and other material evidence.

In the findings issued the tribunal said, Sri Lanka Government is "guilty of War-Crimes" and "guilty of Crimes Against Humanity." The tribunal also concluded that the charge of Genocide requires further investigations. Eye witnesses included several escapees from the final week of Sri Lanka offensive in the Mullaitivu "No Fire Zone" where more than 20,000 Tamil civilians were allegedly slaughtered by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) training heavy weapons on them.

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Ramasamy to spearhead committee on genocide in Sri Lanka

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