Indian parliament discusses Sri Lankan war crimes issue amidst noisy scenes

NEW DELHI (Reuters): The upper house of Indian parliament discussed the issue of war crimes committed in Sri Lanka with questions being raised on India’s foreign policy towards its neighbour amid noisy scenes in the assembly.

The issue of alleged war crimes by the Sri Lankan army against its Tamil civilians was taken up in the upper house (Rajya Sabha) on Wednesday (27 February), to which foreign minister Salman Khurshid avoided the issue of taking the matter to the UN.

Here Khurshid played the safe card maintaining that India continues to play a major role in the rehabilitation process of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

“It is a matter of our consideration, a matter of concern, and a matter of humanitarian nature which is close to the heart of all members in the house, and therefore I want to share with the house that the greatest humanitarian assistance that the government of India, and India have provided to any country, has been the assistance that we provided post the ending of hostilities in Sri Lanka,” he said.

Recently, a new storm raged over alleged war crimes by the Sri Lankan army in the face of new evidences of them executing the LTTE chief’s young son Balachandran in cold blood in 2009.

According to a new documentary by a British channel, two photographs were shown, out of which one showed the young boy’s bullet riddled body, while the other showed him seated near a bunker guarded by a soldier of Sri Lankan Army. It has been alleged that the second photograph was taken a few hours before the boy was killed.

Talking further on the issue, the foreign minister also said India is deliberating with Sri Lanka on to reaching a permanent solution to the Tamil question there.

“Our constant attempt has been to persuade out friendly government of Sri Lanka to stand by the commitment that it has made to the world, and also the constitutional Amendment 13. And in fact we have attempted to persuade them to go beyond Amendment 13 which is called 13 plus, so that a full and final settlement can be made, which is equitable, which provides participatory democratic rights to all citizens of Sri Lanka,” said Khurshid.

The Sri Lankan Army has constantly maintained that Prabhakaran’s family was killed in fighting. The bodies of his wife and daughter have never been found.

Most of the Tamil regional parties in the assembly did not take too kindly to Khurshid’s inconclusive response over the matter and maintained that India must rework on its policy towards Tamils in Sri Lanka.

“There is a general perception that the external affairs ministry is run not by the ministers, but by the diplomats, whose mindsets need to be changed. It is time that the external affairs ministry repositions itself from the Lanka centric foreign policy approach to the Tamils welfare centric foreign policy approach,” said V. Maitreyan, lawmaker from the regional All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) party.

The parliament also witnessed a few brief moments of noisy scenes where Tamil regional parties raised questions over the government’s foreign policy regarding the Tamils in Sri Lanka. But the protests soon died down as the assembly chairman P. J. Kurien intervened to maintain order in the house.

India is a major partner in Sri Lanka’s reconciliation process for its war battered Tamil populace who have bore the brunt of the long war which spanned more than 30 years.

A UN report last year cited an earlier estimate of 40,000 civilians killed in crossfire between government and rebel forces after they were trapped on a sliver of coastline, and cited credible information that over 70,000 remained ‘unaccounted for’.

The UN report reinvigorated calls from human rights groups and expatriate ethnic Tamils for an international investigation into suspected war crimes towards the end of the conflict with the LTTE. Sri Lanka’s Government has repeatedly rejected allegations that it committed war crimes and also rejected suggestions in the report that it had intimidated UN officials. The war ended with the LTTE’s defeat in May 2009.