Addressing the council again on the general debate of the Item 2, Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General, Ananthy Sasitharan spoke for a second time on behalf of the NGO, Collectif des Femmes Africaines du Hainaut (CFAH), calling for a Commission of Inquiry as an immediate step to halt the on-going genocide taking place in the North and East of Sri Lanka.
See the video of her address, from 15:58 onwards below.
Full statement reproduced below.
Thank you Chair,
We welcome the annual report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
We recognize the special role played by the High Commissioner Ms Navanetham Pillay.
Today, I stand before this assembly, representing the NGO VSSU, and also as an elected representative of the Tamil National Alliance in the Northern Provincial Council from the island of Sri Lanka.
Five years have gone after the end of war in the island. The homeland of the Tamil people in the North and East of the island is now occupied by a genocidal military.
We are very disappointed with the resolutions passed by this assembly in 2012 and 2013. The new draft resolution, to be submitted to this session, has also disappointed us a lot.
Our main problems are not addressed by these resolutions.
The root problem is the 60-year-old genocide against our people.
This genocide is still going on without a war. We call it a structural genocide.
The annual report has correctly identified the lack of a political will on the part of Sri Lankan system to conduct domestic investigations.
In addition, the Sri Lankan State is committing the crime of Genocide-Denial.
How can we expect the Sri Lankan State to conduct credible and independent investigation?
We welcome the call by the High Commissioner to this assembly to appoint a Commission of Inquiry on Sri Lanka.
But, as victims, we sense a lack of political will as an investigation on the genocide has not been called for by the OHCHR and the UN system in general.
We request this assembly to call for international investigation on genocide – and as an immediate step – to come out with a mechanism to stop the on-going genocide of Eelam Tamils.
See also:
Ananthy Sasitharan calls for an independent investigation into genocide of Tamils
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