A Million People & Counting Want Sri Lanka Referred To The ICC
Usha S Sri-Skanda-Rajah
Today we have more than a million people (and counting) wanting Sri Lanka to be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC). That means a million people have now spoken with one voice – a fact that should undoubtedly persuade the UN and members of the Security Council to act decisively – both of whom, according the UN Internal Review Panel’s findings during the final months of the war in Sri Lanka, “failed” Tamil Civilians.[1]
In a major blow to Sri Lanka – both to the current Sirisena and previousRajapaksa regimes who continue to evade accountability and independent scrutiny at all costs, having been steeped in a culture of impunity and what observers hail to be clearly and unequivocally a strong message – a clarion call for action, addressed to the conscience of the United Nations, and through its auspices in particular to the Security Council, the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Human Rights Council, it’s now been established that more than a million people (and counting) have added their names to TGTE‘s (Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam) campaign: “urging the United Nation to refer Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court (or establish a similar credible International Judicial Mechanism) for the investigation and prosecution of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed against the Tamil people – by the Sri Lankan State.”
In so doing, more than a million people, in a short space of four months, have, identifying with Eelam Tamilsand without reservation delivered an appeal, a plea, a demand, a salvo, a challenge, whichever way you see it, to the UN, one which must be heard, heeded and acted upon. These million people have in other words rejected as unsatisfactory, “any call by the Sri Lankan government for a domestic mechanism or a so called hybrid mechanism to replace any international judicial process,” as the petition states:
“Any call by the Sri Lankan government for a domestic mechanism or a so called hybrid mechanism to replace any international judicial process is an attempt to deflect the call for referral to the ICC and to delay other meaningful actions on accountability. And efforts to establish a domestic Truth and Reconciliation Commission is another diversionary tactic to protect those who committed serious crimes against Tamils.”
The petition invokes Chapter 7 Article 39 of the UN Charter and argues that, “the current situation in Sri Lanka constitutes an ongoing ‘threat to peace’ under the said provision because there has been absolutely no accountability for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.”
The petition points to the UN Internal Review Report which found “credible estimates” of civilian casualties of 70,000 Tamils during the first six months in 2009 and that, “as the former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated , Sri Lanka is one of the notable countries, along with Bosnia, Burma, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and elsewhere, where rape was used as a tactic of war.”
Further the petition provides facts and reasons in support of its call under the following headings:
