The Chief Minister of the Northern Province renewed calls for justice for the lives lost in the massacres of 2009 and urged the international community to ensure accountability is delivered, in a speech given at Mullivaikkal earlier today.

Justice Wigneswaran reflected on the number of lives lost in those final months, noting that Bishop Rayappu Joseph’s figure of 146,679 Tamils missing remains unaccounted for.

“Every week, people who have lost their families, relatives of persons whose family members are missing, people injured in war, people who are crippled by war, people who have lost vision, orphaned young ones, who have lost their dear parents and housewives who head their families are coming to meet me,” said the chief minister.

“All of them want justice.”

The chief minister also spoke on a UN Human Rights Council resolution passed last year, stating that “I welcomed the resolution, but at the same time, I also appealed to the international community to move cautiously, keeping in mind the welfare of our people”.

“I also pointed out that those who conduct the cases at the domestic courts would never ensure that justice would be administered to our afflicted people,” continued the chief minister. “I stressed the need for engaging international lawyers to conduct the cases. Since one cannot expect justice from domestic judiciary, I also emphasised the need to appoint international judges to come to appropriate conclusions.”

Speaking on his engagement with the international community Justice Wigneswaran said some states had appealed to the Tamil people to “forget war crimes in lieu of a federal government promise in return”.

“If they had taken cognisance of the losses and the sufferings of our people affected by the war, they would not have made such an uncivilized demand,” he continued, adding that “everyone should come forward to fight for justice”.