The US based Tamil advocacy group, USTPAC, welcomed the UN Human Rights Council's decision to mandate an international inquiry into grave crimes in Sri Lanka. "Tamils have waited nearly five years since end of the armed conflict for a genuine accountability mechanism to be established, and the resolution just adopted marks a turning point in their quest for justice," said Dr. Karunyan Arulanantham, the President of the US Tamil Political Action Council (USTPAC).
The leader of the Liberal Party in Canada, Justin Trudeau, welcomed the decision by the UN Human Rights Council to mandate an OHCHR investigation into Sri Lanka mass atrocities. In a statement issued Friday, Mr. Trudeau said, “We welcome the establishment of an independent, international investigation into war crimes and violations of human rights and humanitarian law in Sri Lanka.
Reiterating the Sri Lankan government's objection to the resolution, Sri Lanka's special envoy for human rights Mahinda Samarasinghe asserted that Sri Lanka would not comply. “We had clearly stated we are fully against the resolution. They will now try to implement the resolution but we will not provide any facilities or assistance to those who try to implement the resolution.” Commenting on India's decision to abstain, Mr. Samarasinghe urged that Sri Lanka " must build on this goodwill shown by India ".
Reuters reported Friday foreign investors pulled out from the Sri Lankan bourse in heavy volume on Friday, a day after a UNHRC resolution approved an international probe into the island’s war crimes. The bourse saw a net foreign outflow of 2.77 billion Rs ($21.19 million) worth of shares, the highest single-day outflow since Feb. 6, extending the net foreign outflow so far this year to 6.9 billion Rs ($52.79 million). "Investors are a bit more worried about the economic impact and growth due to the resolution," a stockbroker told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Warning that the resolution on Sri Lanka passed by the UN Human Rights Council could not halt the on-going violations faced by the Tamil people today, the leader of the Tamil National People's Front (TNPF), Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam said they do nonetheless encourage and welcome Tamil people to assist in the inquiry, through providing evidence and witness testimonies. Stating that the resolution passed was against the Rajapaksa government, not the Sri Lankan state, Mr. Ponnambalam said in an interview with BBC Tamil , that being against the Rajapaksa regime, did not automatically translate into being beneficial to the Tamil people.
The United States, yesterday, expressed disappointment over India’s decision to abstain from voting on the resolution that calling for an international investigation mechanism into Sri Lanka's atrocities. Responding to questions on India’s stance on the resolution, at a press briefing, the State Department Deputy Spokesperson, Marie Harf, said , “It is disappointing to us that India abstained from voting on this resolution when they voted yes for the last two years. We have made our disappointment known to Indian officials.”
The British Tamil Conservatives (BTC) welcomed the UN Human Rights Council's mandating of the OHCHR to undertake an inquiry into Sri Lanka and expressed gratitude to British officials responsible for pushing the resolution. In a statement made Saturday, the BTC thanked the British Prime Minister David Cameron for fulfilling his promise made to the Tamil people to push for an international investigation, following his visit to Jaffna last year.
The US Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, applauded the adoption of the resolution calling on the Office of the High Commissioner to undertake an investigation in Sri Lanka, stating that accountability there was "long over due". In a statement issued yesterday, Sen. Menendez said, “I applaud today’s passage of the U.S. co-sponsored resolution at the UN Human Rights Council which called for an independent international investigation into alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka. Accountability is long overdue in Sri Lanka, and I hope that an independent UN investigation will be able to pursue justice, accountability and reconciliation for the grave human rights violations allegedly committed by both sides during Sri Lanka’s civil war."
Welcoming the UN Human Rights Council's mandating of an investigation into Sri Lanka, the British Tamil Forum (BTF) said that this was "just the start", stressing however, that it had "serious concerns" about the lack of a Tamil narrative within the text of the resolution. Speaking to the Tamil Guardian shortly after the Council adopted the resolution, Mr. S.A.N. Rajkumar of the BTF's Geneva desk, said, "We welcome the investigative part of it, but we also have concerns because the whole Tamil narrative is lost, especially in trying to confine the problem into a religious minorities issues."
Sri Lanka said Friday that the United States had ‘bullied’ several countries into voting in favour of the resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday, and hailed as ‘significant’ India’s abstention. A statement on the government’s official website quoted External Affairs Minister GL Peiris as saying US President Obama had intimidated many countries into supporting the proposal by saying that their friendship with the US and his future visits to those countries will be reviewed on their support to the proposal.