Canada should move ICJ on Tamil genocide, US position disappointing: Ananthy

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 November 2019, 16:33 GMT]
Canada is home to the largest number of Eezham Tamils in the diaspora. Recently, a resolution has been passed in the Canadian parliament calling for international investigations on the allegation of Tamil genocide. Therefore, Canada could consider suing the SL State in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for violating the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, also known as the Genocide Convention. Canada could reasonably justify the move as a significant group of its population, being Canadian Eezham Tamils directly and indirectly affected by the genocide that has taken place in the island, said former Northern Provincial Council Minister Ananthy Sasitharan. She had accompanied Tamil presidential candidate M.K. Shivajilingam in his meeting with the US Embassy officials in Jaffna after they jointly filed his nomination, Ms Ananthy said.

Indian officials had also met Mr Shivajilingam after he filed the nomination.



The so-called consensus resolution (UNHRC resolution 30/1 ) was passed in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva during the presidency of Barack Obama. That resolution has helped the SL State to dodge international investigations and investigations against Tamil genocide. The accountability process brought by the UNHRC resolution has failed on all accounts, she said.

The current US administration has withdrawn from the UNHRC under the presidency of Donald Trump. The official reason provided was that the council lacked efficiency and there was calling it a “cesspool of political bias”.

Why can’t the US administration convince its neighbour to approach the ICJ on investigating SL state responsibility on Tamil genocide, Ms Sasitharan had asked the US officials she and Mr Shivajilingam met in Jaffna.

However, Mr Adam Smith, the political officer at the US Embassy in Colombo, responded saying that the U.S. was backing only a “Sri Lankan-led process” as detailed in Colombo’s UNHRC commitment under the UNHRC resolution 30/1.

The position of the US government, even after the utter failure of the so-called transitional justice process, was a big disappointment, Ms Sasitharan said.



In an in-depth narration, Ananthy Sasitharan explained the background of her decision to promote M.K. Shivajilingam as a presidential candidate. She revealed details of the interaction with the independent committee appointed by the Tamil People’s Council to search for a common presidential candidate for Tamils. She was also responding to questions on the positions adopted by the Tamil parties, the University students and the independent committee.

Sajith Premadasa’s party representatives were showing some interest in meeting and discussing with Mr Shivajilingam. However, both the former NPC Councillors have told Sajith Premadasa’s campaigners that unless there was a favourable and credible response to the 13 points articulated by the six Tamil parties, there was no point in meeting them.

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