The British Tamils Forum said it shared the "deep disappointment and anguish" felt by Tamils across the world on hearing that the report of the UN inquiry investigating mass atrocities against the Tamil people at the end of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka would be deferred till September.
"The victims and the witnesses of this genocide have already waited far too long," the BTF said in a statement on Tuesday.
Expressing scepticism over the Sri Lankan government's promises of change and pointing to the lack of credible public pledges, the BTF said: "Sri Lanka’s Foreign minister and Sri Lankan Government spokespersons have already publicly stated that they will not allow an international investigation and will only set up a domestic probe into a few “incidents”. Given this explicit position of the Sri Lankan state it is difficult to see how the High Commissioner arrived at the conclusion that there is a ‘change in context’ in Sri Lanka.
"It would be a great betrayal of trust by the UNHRC if the report is never released, diluted or transferred to a domestic inquiry," the group added.
Outlining the ongoing barriers facing to proper evidence collection from the Tamil people in the North-East, the BTF urged the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to detail what measures would be put in place over the next six months in view of gathering more information:
"We also wish to know what measures have been considered to protect the sources of this new information from the Sri Lankan state. The same military that threatened victims who sought justice from the previous High Commissioner during her visit is occupying, and is very much in control of, the North and East of Sri Lanka. Jeyakumari Balendran, the mother who sought help from the previous High Commissioner to find her missing son, is still in a Sri Lankan prison on trumped-up charges, and the sister who pleaded to be reunited with her brother is now separated from her mother too.
"Tamil victims have not seen any change in their plight in the island of Sri Lanka. The Tamil people do not see any change in the nature of the Sri Lankan state," the BTF said.
"The deferral of this report without any consultation with the victims has already eroded the credibility of UNHRC in the eyes of the victims. The UN has belatedly acknowledged that it failed to protect the Tamil people from the massacre in Mullivaikkal; it is once again failing the Tamil people by delaying justice."
See full statement here.
"The victims and the witnesses of this genocide have already waited far too long," the BTF said in a statement on Tuesday.
Expressing scepticism over the Sri Lankan government's promises of change and pointing to the lack of credible public pledges, the BTF said: "Sri Lanka’s Foreign minister and Sri Lankan Government spokespersons have already publicly stated that they will not allow an international investigation and will only set up a domestic probe into a few “incidents”. Given this explicit position of the Sri Lankan state it is difficult to see how the High Commissioner arrived at the conclusion that there is a ‘change in context’ in Sri Lanka.
"It would be a great betrayal of trust by the UNHRC if the report is never released, diluted or transferred to a domestic inquiry," the group added.
Outlining the ongoing barriers facing to proper evidence collection from the Tamil people in the North-East, the BTF urged the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to detail what measures would be put in place over the next six months in view of gathering more information:
"We also wish to know what measures have been considered to protect the sources of this new information from the Sri Lankan state. The same military that threatened victims who sought justice from the previous High Commissioner during her visit is occupying, and is very much in control of, the North and East of Sri Lanka. Jeyakumari Balendran, the mother who sought help from the previous High Commissioner to find her missing son, is still in a Sri Lankan prison on trumped-up charges, and the sister who pleaded to be reunited with her brother is now separated from her mother too.
"Tamil victims have not seen any change in their plight in the island of Sri Lanka. The Tamil people do not see any change in the nature of the Sri Lankan state," the BTF said.
"The deferral of this report without any consultation with the victims has already eroded the credibility of UNHRC in the eyes of the victims. The UN has belatedly acknowledged that it failed to protect the Tamil people from the massacre in Mullivaikkal; it is once again failing the Tamil people by delaying justice."
See full statement here.