The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) will not accept an internal inquiry following the publishing of the upcoming UN report examining mass atrocities in Sri Lanka, said the party spokesperson, Suresh Premachandran at a press briefing on Monday.
Speaking at the Jaffna Press Club (JPC), Mr Premachandran responded to the current government's statements on the issue.
"They said that once the UN report is released, we will give our response after reading that, or we will arrange to have an internal investigation. We [TNA] want to say something very clearly. The UN report must be released [and] we expect it to be released in September."
"We expect that the UN report following the investigation, will include many issues such as who is responsible for war crimes, what were the reasons for this, issues relating to human rights violations."
Calling for those who were involved in the process of launching an UN investigation to also take the process forward to the next stage, Mr Premachandran said,
"This must either be a referral to the International Criminal Court, or the creation of a tribunal to investigate the crimes that took place in Sri Lanka. We call for the international community and the UN to work towards this."
"Certainly if this report is going to lead to another internal inquiry, not only will the Tamil National Alliance not accept this, but there will be no use from it."
TNA manifesto calls for constitutional change that accepts Tamil right to self-determination (25 Jul 2015)
We need your support
Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.
Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view
We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.
For more ways to donate visit https://donate.tamilguardian.com.
