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Commission of Inquiry is needed - Northern Provincial Councillor tells UNHRC diplomats

Addressing diplomatic missions at an informal public session on the draft resolution tabled on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council, Northern Provincial Councillor, MK Shivajilingam, called for an "independent international investigative mechanism in the form of Commission of Inquiry in the resolution this time, to investigate all the violations and crimes committed against the Tamil people prior to, during, and after the war".

"Only a Commission of Inquiry can ensure the necessary mandate, resources and direction needed for this," he told the diplomatic missions who had gathered to debate and discuss the draft resolution's text. 

Outlining Sri Lanka's repeatedly failures to take meaningful measures towards  reconciliation, Mr. Shivajilingam said,

"Sri Lanka has done nothing meaningful towards reconciliation, instead involved in land grabs, settlements, demographic changes, military occupation, coercive contraceptive methods and ongoing human rights violations. All of these are aimed at breaking down the Tamil Nation. We are facing threats to our own existence as Tamil people."

He called on member states to "include a call for finding a political solution as part of the resolution that addresses the root cause of the conflict and provides permanent relief to the Tamil people from the oppression of the Sri Lankan state."

See here for his full statement.

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