The Australian Tamil Congress welcomes the shift in the international community’s stance on issues of war crimes in Sri Lanka.
On Wednesday, the Australian Senate unanimously passed a motion jointly moved by Sen. Lee Rhiannon, Sen. Gary Humphries and Foreign Minister Bob Carr calling on Australia to support a United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution.
Last night the United States led resolution was passed at the UNHRC calling on Sri Lanka to implement the constructive recommendations of its internal inquiry, the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), while pointing out the LLRC report does not however adequately address serious allegations of violations of international law.
“We appreciate Australia openly calling Sri Lanka out on issues of war crimes and accountability,” said Dr. Sam Pari, spokesperson for the Australian Tamil Congress. “The UNHRC resolution is finally an acknowledgement by the international community that Sri Lanka needs to address serious issues of accountability. However, the resolution is only a small first step and our call for international independent inquiry will continue until Tamils achieve the justice they deserve,” she added.
?i. The LLRC report contains constructive proposals for advancing reconciliation and reconstruction, including through reducing the presence of security forces in the North, care of internally displaced persons and media freedoms;
ii. The Australian Government has consistently urged Sri Lanka to investigate all allegations of crimes committed by both sides to the conflict, including those raised in the UN Secretary-General's Panel of Experts report;
iii. In light of the report's failure to comprehensively address such allegations, the government continues to call on Sri Lanka for all such allegations to be investigated in a transparent and independent manner.
2) The Senate calls on the Australian government, as a minimum, to support efforts to secure a US initiated resolution on Sri Lanka at the 19th Session of the UN Human Rights Council, through the Australian permanent representative in Geneva.