Malaysian politician to form Committee on genocide in Sri Lanka

Ramasamy to spearhead committee on genocide in Sri Lanka Prof Dr P. Ramasamy GEORGE TOWN (Aug 8, 2010) : DAP Deputy Secretary-General and Penang Deputy Chief Minister (II) Prof Dr P. Ramasamy is spearheading the formation of an international committee to take up the issue of the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka last year. The group, comprising NGOs, activists and politicians, is expected to be operational within a few months, and would collect evidences of the genocide with the aim of presenting a case to the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Panel, Ramasamy said. The report on war crimes committed during hostilities between the Tamil Tigers rebels and the Sri Lanka government would also be presented to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, he added. Ramasamy said that those involved, including leaders in the Sri Lankan and Indian governments who were responsible for the genocide, should be brought to book. "The group will also fight for human rights anywhere, in places where people are deprived of their rights and privileges," said the Batu Kawan MP who is a long-time human right activist. He said this after receiving a courtesy call from Indian environmentalists T. Sriniviasa Rao and R. Gnanasekaran at his office in Komtar here recently. The duo, who have travelled some 600,000km around the world since 1986 in the name of bringing awareness of global warming and human rights violations, were in Penang last week before heading for Buenos Aires in South America. Ramasamy had been instrumental in drafting the interim administration proposal to kick-start the peace process between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government six years ago. The draft was however rejected by the Sri Lankan authorities. He had also given the Tamil Tigers leadership a ten-day political course in Killinochi during the height of a Norwegian-brokered peace process. In January this year, Ramasamy rejected an invitation by the Indian government to speak at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention in New Delhi, the largest gathering of overseas Indians, citing India's "questionable role" in the elimination and imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of Tamils in Sri Lanka. In his letter, he said India's role had angered the Tamil community in Malaysia.

http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=50433 Updated: 07:09PM Sun, 08 Aug 2010

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