Sri Lanka’s crisis underscores need for international war crimes inquiry - C V Wigneswaran

“The world community should now realise why we insist on international input into the war crimes’ inquiry,” said Chief Minister of the Northern Province CV Wigneswaran amidst the deepening political turmoil on the island which saw MPs attack each other in parliament last week.       

“The world community will now be able to gauge if this is how peers and equals in Parliament are treated by our Parliamentarians most of whom belong to the majority community, how their soldiers would have treated the minority communities under their complete authority and power,” said the Chief Minister.

“No Sri Lankan Government will grant anything to Tamils and the responsibility to solve the ethnic conflict lies with the International Community,” he added.

He went on to call on the international community to place pressure on Sri Lanka leading up to the UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva in March 2019.

“The International Community should now act with greater responsibility knowing the type of people they are dealing with to place a proper war crimes’ investigation mechanism before the forthcoming UNHRC sessions in Geneva regardless of who is in power in Sri Lanka. Current constitutional crisis should not in any way be given consideration for giving more time to Sri Lanka to implement the consensus resolution. The world community should take appropriate steps instead to help the victims of Sri Lankan military brutality.”

His comments come following calls for sanctions and international pressure on Sri Lanka, as the political crisis on the island deepened this week