The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) issued a statement on Wednesday, apparently distancing itself from a draft resolution tabled within the TNA led Northern Provincial Council (NPC) which calls on the international community to recognise the genocide committed against the Tamil people by the Sri Lankan state.

The draft resolution, tabled by the NPC councillor M. K. Shivajilingham, said that the NPC "wished to inform the international community of its strong belief that the Tamil people have been, and continue to be subjected to genocide by the Sri Lankan government and its forces" and "requests the international community and United Nations to create a mechanism to protect the Tamil people from the ongoing genocide of the Tamil people".

Whilst stating that "acts specified in article 2 of the Genocide Convention of 1948 have undeniably been perpetrated on the Tamil people by functionaries of the Sri Lankan state over several decades", the TNA leadership said it would be "improper and inappropriate for the Northern Provincial Council or any other political body to make pronouncements in the form of resolutions or otherwise on matters of evidence and law currently being considered by the OHCHR Investigation into Sri Lanka (OISL).

"Members of TNA, the Tamil People, all citizens of Sri Lanka and members of the global community have a right – which right is frequently exercised – to understand the treatment of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka through the prism of any of these expanded socio-political definitions of their preference," the TNA leadership added however.

The statement, issued on the official TNA website, comes as a case was filed against the TNA members within the NPC by the Sri Lankan group, the 'Patriotic National Front', alleging that the councillors had violated the constitution by writing a letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, to investigate the crime of genocide.

Party leader, Raveendra Niroshan, condemned the letter, signed by 33 councillors from the Northern and Eastern provinces, as "false" and called on the Sri Lankan High Court to punish the members.

See full letter here. Extract reproduced below:

“The Tamil people strongly believe that they have been, and continued to be subjected to Genocide by Sri Lanka. The Tamils were massacred in groups, their temples and churches were bombed, and their iconic Jaffna Public Library was burnt down in 1981 with its collection of largest oldest priceless irreplaceable Tamil manuscripts.  Systematic Sinhalese settlements and demographic changes with the intent to destroy the Tamil Nation, are taking place. We request the OHCHR investigative team to look into the pattern of all the atrocities against the Tamil people, and to determine if Genocide has taken place."

Following the complaint by the Patriotic National Front, the attorney general has been asked by the High Court to determine whether a trial will be held or not.

All TNA members within the NPC, except the Chief Minister, C. V. Wigneswaran, were referred to as defendants by the petitioner, Niroshan, reports BBC Tamil.

Ahead of the NPC election late last year, 17 TNA NPC candidates, including the Chief Minister Wigneswaran, issued a pledge detailing the three key demands of their electoral campaign: reaffirming their belief in the Tamil nation's right to self-determination, rejecting the 13th Amendment or the unitary Sri Lankan constitution as a point that can lead to a political solution, and reiterating the need for an international investigation into war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

See more here.

NPC members have been critics of the Sri Lankan state's continuing policies of militarisation and Sinhala colonisation across the North-East - policies which they have described as furthering the genocide of the Tamil people.

Related articles:

Full text of 5 resolutions adopted by Northern Provincial Council this week (02 May 2014)

SLFP to examine NPC resolution calling for OISL access (13 Sep 2014)