A network of Tamil civil society groups in the North-East, the Tamil Civil Society Forum (TCSF), endorsed the call by councillors in the Northern and Eastern provinces for an international inquiry into the crime of genocide.
Defending the councillors' right to state make such a call, the TSCF disputed an earlier statement by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which argued that a draft NPC resolution which argued the mass killing of Tamils by the Sri Lankan state was a genocide, would prejudice the OHCHR Investigation into Sri Lanka (OISL) currently underway.
"Tamils and their representatives have the right to form a legal opinion that the atrocities that were committed (and continue to be perpetrated) against them amounts to Genocide. There are sufficient, reasonable grounds to form such a legal opinion, such that this is not a spurious claim," the TSCF statement, published on Friday, read.
"Tamils and their representatives also have a concomitant right to seek the intervention of the International Community to prevent and protect them from the commission of Genocide. The right to state and claim the above stems from their right to freedom of speech and expression enshrined in international human rights law. Prevention and protection from Genocide are also duties that stem from the UN Genocide Convention and the emerging doctrine of the Responsibility to Protect. The self-characterization and identification of the crime to which they were subjected to, by the victim group, in no way prejudices an impartial inquiry into those crimes by any body that is empowered to do so. Hence, the identification of the crime that befell them as constituting genocide by Tamils in no way prejudices OISL's inquiry into the same."
Listing instances of other states' parliaments passing resolutions on genocide, the TSCF said, "Tamils and their elected representatives have to articulate their positions with clarity and with the best interests of the Tamils in mind [and] they have the moral right to contribute and lead the discourse through which their issues could be addressed.
See full statement here in English and Tamil.
Related article:
TNA leadership distances itself from NPC genocide resolution as case filed against councillors (23 Oct 2014)
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