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PM flays Sri Lanka, mum on Geneva meet
Friday March 08, 2013 08:08:28 PM,
IANS
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New Delhi: Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh Friday launched a veiled attack on Sri
Lanka, saying Tamils there must get "dignity and self respect",
but kept mum on the upcoming UN human rights meet in Geneva.
In a rare public criticism, Manmohan Singh told parliament that
India was "worried" about Sri Lankan Tamils and wants them to live
with "dignity and self respect".
"There are problems in Sri Lanka; we have been worried about the
fate of the Tamil population in Sri Lanka," Manmohan Singh said in
the Rajya Sabha as part of a larger debate.
"It has been our effort to plead with the government of Sri Lanka
that there must be political reconciliation, that without national
reconciliation (the) situation cannot remain calm."
In a clear reference to the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the
main Tamil grouping in Sri Lanka, Manmohan Singh asked Colombo to
take the initiative to talk to the "Tamil top leadership".
Several rounds of talks between the Sri Lankan government and the
TNA have failed to resolve the impasse on the political roadmap in
that country since the Tamil Tigers were vanquished in May 2009.
"It has been our effort to work with the leadership in Sri Lanka
and to ensure that Tamil people (there) do get a chance to live a
life of dignity and self respect as equal citizens of the
country."
The prime minister, however, made no reference to the meeting due
this month in Geneva of the UN Human Rights Council where the US
has piloted a resolution pulling up human rights abuses in Sri
Lanka.
The resolution, being debated by UNHCR member countries, also
flays Sri Lanka for not devolving powers to the Tamil minority and
for not embracing a political resolution to its ethnic problem.
Opposition MPs have been pressing India to reveal its stand on
Geneva.
The prime minister's comments follow widespread allegations of
rights abuses in Sri Lanka during the war against the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that ended in 2009 and since then.
Indian officials also say that Sri Lanka has failed to honour the
commitments made by its leaders to India to go for a political
resolution of the long running ethnic conflict after the LTTE's
defeat.
The Manmohan Singh government is under intense pressure from
political foes and one ally to vote against Sri Lanka at the UN
meet in Geneva -- a la last year.
But in his speech Friday, Manmohan Singh made no reference to the
Geneva meet or to allegations that the 12-year-old son of the
slain Tamil Tigers chief V. Prabhakaran was killed in cold blood
by the military.
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