India to back US resolution against Lanka

PM Manmohan Singh confirms New Delhi’s stand

New Delhi has decided to play its hand early this year, with an Indian Minister confirming Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s decision that India will vote against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council’s 22nd Session that opened in Geneva yesterday.

Indian Union Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) V. Narayansamy told the Times of India newspaper that India will vote in support of a US-backed resolution against Sri Lanka proposed to be moved before the UNHRC next month.

Minister Narayansamy said that Indian Premier Manmohan Singh had promised to support the resolution against Sri Lanka on war crimes and human rights violations at the UNHRC meeting.

He said that he and other MPs from Tamil Nadu recently called on Prime Minister Singh and asked him to extend support to the US-sponsored resolution that was trying to hold Sri Lanka accountable for war crimes. The delegation had urged the Prime Minister to vote against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC.

“The sentiments of Tamil people are running high after pictures of slain LTTE leader Prabhakaran and his son Balachandran were released in the media recently,” Narayanasamy said.

“We called on the Prime Minister and insisted that he support the resolution against Sri Lanka on war crimes. He promised to do so,” Narayanasamy said.

India was one of 24 UNHRC member states that voted against Sri Lanka on human rights violations at the Geneva HRC sessions in March last year. However last year, New Delhi did not divulge its decision to vote against Sri Lanka until the eleventh hour, despite mounting pressure from the country’s southern states.