In a joint statement published Wednesday, four leading Tamil diaspora groups working together in Geneva at the 19th session of the UN Human Rights Council - British Tamils Forum (BTF), Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC), Tamil Youth Organisation UK (TYO UK) and US Tamil Political Action Council (USTPAC) - welcomed the draft resolution tabled on Sri Lanka as a "glimpse of hope". 

Full text reproduced below: 

Tamils Welcome the Proposed US Resolution on Sri Lanka

Joint Statement by British Tamils Forum (BTF), Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC), Tamil Youth Organisation UK (TYO UK) and US Tamil Political Action Council (USTPAC)
March 7th, 2012 - Geneva, Switzerland

We welcome the proposed resolution by the Government of the United States of America at the 19th Session of the UN Human Rights Council towards holding all parties to the conflict accountable during the last phases of the war in Sri Lanka. The resolution offers a glimpse of hope for those affected by the conflict and sets in motion appropriate steps that could assist in long term peace and reconciliation in post-war Sri Lanka.

Three years after the end of the bloody civil war, Sri Lanka has failed to establish the necessary preconditions for reconciliation to occur. While the government appointed Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) has been held out as the cornerstone of Sri Lanka’s accountability and reconciliation strategy, it falls short in addressing critical issues of accountability. Sri Lanka has been given the appropriate time and space to offer a path towards peace and reconciliation, but has failed to do so.

Whilst we have serious concerns regarding the independence of the LLRC and its failure to address the credible allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the implementation of the LLRC’s constructive recommendations, as detailed within the tabled resolution and in accordance with the specified timelines, would be a step in the right direction.

The Sri Lankan government organised a series of Buddhist religious poojas across the country on Wednesday, in order to ward off a prospective resolution against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, Deputy Finance Minister, said,

Sri Lanka has rejected a draft resolution tabled at the UN Human Rights Council.

Tamara Kunanayakam, Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, criticised the move by the US.

Ms Kunanayakam said that Sri Lanka is working hard to convince the Human Rights Council to vote against the resolution.

As Sri Lanka struggles to fend off a critical resolution at the UN Human Rights Commission, international pressure on Sri Lanka is coalescing on three key demands.

International actors are demanding that Sri Lanka implements reforms to usher in good governance, credibly investigates and prosecutes those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity and finally meets Tamil demands for meaningful self government.

While the substance of these demands is entirely reasonable and plausible, the presumption that Sri Lanka might somehow meet these expectations is not.

For if Sri Lanka really was capable of such enlightened behaviour then why has its post independence history been one of relentlessly escalating ethnic antagonism and brutality, culminating in the bloodbath of May 2009? What explains the ongoing militarised repression of the Tamil speaking regions?

The very need for such overt international insistence on measures that are patently necessary reveals precisely why all such pressure is futile.

One of the parties of Sri Lanka’s ruling coalition has called for the prosecution of the Bishop of Mannar, Rayappu Joseph, and 30 other members of the clergy who have signed a letter critical of the government.

Tamil NGO delegates were subject to intimidation tactics by members of the Sri Lankan delegation reported the news agency, Agence France-Presse (AFP), on Thursday.

Médecins Sans Frontières have refuted comments made by Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa that the organisation was allowed access in the final war zone in 2009, stating that despite repeated reuqests, access was denied.

Writing in the New York Times, the panel of experts appointed by the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon to examine the final stages of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka - Marzuki Darusman, the former attorney-general of Indonesia, Steven Ratner, a professor of law at the University of Michigan, and Yasmin Sooka, the executive director of the Foundation for Human Rights in South Africa - urged the 19th session of the UN Human Rights Council to ens

Addressing the 19th session of the UN Human Rights Council, Lawyers' Rights Watch Canada (LRWC), an NGO that advocates the rights of human rights activists internationally, highlighted Sri Lanka's failure to make meaningful progress on peace and reconciliation, whilst increasing its intimidation and harrassment of those campaigning for human rights.

The US Under Secretary of State, Maria Otero, warned Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations of the LLRC without delay.

Speaking at the 19th UN Human Rights Session on Friday, Otero said that there can be no lasting peace without reconciliaton and accountability.

Condemning the TNA's boycott of the 19th UN Human Rights Council session currently underway in Geneva, the Jaffna University Students Union (JUSU), called on the TNA to represent the views of the people they were elected to represent.

In a statement published Thursday, the JUSU urged the TNA to bring the aspirations of the Tamils to a global forum.