India to support call for international probe against Lanka UNHRC: Report

Friday, 21 February 2014 00:46 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Government of India is set to back the call for an international investigation into alleged war crimes committed in the last days of Sri Lanka’s war at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva next month, a UK newspaper reported from New Delhi yesterday. India’s Congress-led Government will support an international investigation in order to win Tamil votes at April’s General Election, the Telegraph said. If confirmed the report deals a heavy blow to ongoing Government efforts to ward off an international inquiry at the March session of the UNHRC. Quoting Government sources in New Delhi, the report said India’s decision to add its weight to a campaign led by Britain and the United States. “As the biggest regional power, India’s support will also increase the likelihood that next month’s United Nations Human Rights Committee meeting in Geneva will pass a resolution calling for an international investigation,” the report said. According to the newspaper, the Indian Government has so far remained non-committal as Britain and other supporters have lobbied officials, but privately acknowledge that the government is likely to support the resolution to keep its Indian Tamil allies on board for its general election in April-May. The Telegraph said that Indian officials are now waiting to receive the draft proposal drawn up by the UN’s Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay, but they say “political considerations” rather than concerns over its relationship with Colombo will determine the Government’s stand. “The decision will be made in the midst of an election campaign, so political considerations will play a key role,” a Government source told the Telegraph yesterday.

Indian Govt. clashes with Tamil Nadu over Gandhi killers

NEW DELHI, Feb 20 (Reuters) - India’s government was embroiled in a dispute on Thursday with a powerful state that plans to free seven people convicted for the 1991 killing of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, in political jostling ahead of a general election. The assassination by a suicide bomber is an emotional issue for India’s ruling Congress party, led by the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, which is gearing up for an election expected to start in April. Gandhi’s widow, Sonia, is Congress’ president and their son, Rahul, is leading the party’s election campaign. The state of Tamil Nadu plans to release the convicts in what is seen as a pitch for votes by Jayaram Jayalalithaa, chief minister of the southern state where there is some sympathy for the killers’ political motives. Jayalalithaa, who announced the plan on Wednesday, is thought to have national ambitions. “The assassination of Shri Rajiv Gandhi was an attack on the soul of India,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a statement on Thursday. “The release of the killers of a former prime minister of India and our great leader, as well as several other innocent Indians, would be contrary to all principles of justice.” Gandhi was killed while campaigning in the state by an ethnic Tamil suicide bomber from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist rebel group from neighbouring Sri Lanka. Twenty-six people were convicted in 1998 for their roles in planning and carrying out the murder.