INDIA: Indian protesters burns effigies of Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa demanding Delhi call on the United Nations to force a war crimes investigation

Record ID: 1374218

  • Title: INDIA: Indian protesters burns effigies of Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa demanding Delhi call on the United Nations to force a war crimes investigation
  • Date: 20th March 2013
  • Summary: FILE - SRI LANKA (MARCH 10, 2009) (REUTERS) ***QUALITY AS INCOMING*** SMOKE RISING FROM JUNGLE SRI LANKAN SOLDIER FIRING GUN FROM BEHIND A BUNKER SRI LANKAN SOLDIER FIRING GUN AIRCRAFT FIRING ROCKETS
  • Embargoed: 4th April 2013 21:15
  • Keywords:
  • Location: India
  • Country: India
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAE9JUEYVA3MWDWUQVTA9W22QVJ
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: People across India took to the streets on Wednesday (March 20) burning effigies of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, demanding the federal government pushes for a U.N Resolution urging the island nation to investigate war crime allegations.
    Protesters chanted slogans and held placards in Mumbai.
    General Secretary of India's regional Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) Vaiko Gopalsamy called for an international investigation into allegations the Sri Lankan carried out genocide at the end of a bitter civil war.
    "Our demand is very clear, there should be independent international investigation against the crime of genocide committed by the racial Sri Lankan government and before that the singly settlement should be brought out, army and police should be withdrawn and there should be an economy embargo under Sri Lankan government," said Vaiko.
    Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is under fire from the U.N. Human Rights Council, which last year adopted a United States-sponsored resolution demanding that Sri Lanka ensure government troops who may have committed war crimes during the war with Tamil rebels are brought to justice.
    In Coimbatore city in India's southern Tamil Nadu state, lawyers took to the streets in protest burning an effigy of Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa.
    The 30-year-long civil war between the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels who at one time controlled large swathes of the north of the island state is estimated to have left tens of thousands of people dead or injured.
    International investigators, whose findings have been rejected by the Sri Lankan authorities, have said the army committed large-scale abuses and was responsible for many civilian deaths in the final stages of the war.
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