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TNPF President Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam (right) and General Secretary Selvarajah Kajendran (left) |
The Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) welcomed the resolution passed by the Northern Provincial Council calling for an UN inquiry into the genocide of the Tamil people by the Sri Lankan state, as a "victory for all of us".
"We fully support yesterday's resolution, and highly praise the Northern Provincial Council and its chief minister, C V Wigneswaran," the TNPF president, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam told a media briefing at the Jaffna Press Club on Wednesday.
Acknowledging the party's long-standing objection to the provincial council system as an inadequate starting point to resolving the ethnic conflict on the island, Mr Ponnambalam said he nonetheless wholly praised the passage of the resolution within such an oppressive system, and pledged to work under the leadership of Mr Wigneswaran to work towards the issues raised in the resolution.
"[The resolution] is a big blow to a system that seeks to repress our [Tamil] nation's politics into a unitary state," he said.
Stating that the resolution passed yesterday was the culmination of many years work and at least two previous attempts to bring a resolution on the genocide of the Tamil people by the TNA NPC councillor M K Shivajilingham, Mr Ponnambalam criticised those who had previously tried to prevent the resolution citing "legal issues".
Recalling statements made by the TNPF, as well as Mr Shivajilingham, TNA NPC councillor Ananthy Sasitharan, and TNA local representative in Valikaamam North, Sujeevan, at the UN Human Rights Council in March 2014 calling for an international investigation into the genocide of the Tamil people, Mr Ponnambalam praised their determination and efforts amid criticism from the party leadership.
"The resolution tabled by chief minister Wigneswaran yesterday is a very big victory for all our efforts," he added.
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