US resolution diluted because India accepted Colombo report: DMK

Chennai: Raising its pitch on the Lankan Tamils issue, DMK on Wednesday charged that the US-sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka at UNHRC was diluted on the basis of India’s “wholehearted acceptance and appreciation” of a report tabled by Colombo at the UN body. DMK president M Karunanidhi said Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and reports in a section of media had implied that he (Karunanidhi) had confined his demand to just passing a resolution in Parliament incorporating amendments suggested to the US-backed resolution. This, he said, was ‘condemnable’. [caption id=“attachment_668315” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  DMK Chief MK Karunanidhi.[/caption] He recalled his party had demanded that an amendment be made to declare that genocide and war crimes had been committed and inflicted on Eelam Tamils by the Sri Lankan Army and administrators and an independent international commission of investigation be established in a time bound manner, which should be adopted as a resolution in Parliament. “Our request and desire is that this should also be moved in the UNHRC as part of the US resolution. But the demand for international investigation into war crimes is not mentioned in the resolution and instead it has been said that the Sri Lankan government should lead a probe…” “In this way, the US resolution has been diluted to a large extent. The watering down has been done on the basis of India whole-heartedly accepting and appreciating a report tabled by the Lankan government at UNHRC,” he said, adding rights body Amnesty International had also accused India of diluting the resolution. Further, DMK’s suggested amendments were not considered fully and therefore at this juncture, the party had announced its stand of pulling out of UPA, he said. PTI