INDIA: Hundreds of demonstrators in South demand trial of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa for war crimes on Tamils

Record ID: 1377063

  • Title: INDIA: Hundreds of demonstrators in South demand trial of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa for war crimes on Tamils
  • Date: 29th April 2011
  • Summary: DEMONSTRATORS HOLDING A BANNER (SOUNDBITE) (Tamil) VELUSWAMY, SUPPORTER OF DRAVIDA KAZHAGAM, SAYING: "The United Nations has declared the ruthless Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa as a war criminal. This is the same statement which we have been making from the beginning and this is what the U.N. has come out with after a detailed committee looking into the matter. In this background, we demand there should be no cooperation of the Indian government with Sri Lanka." PLACARD
  • Embargoed: 14th May 2011 01:52
  • Keywords:
  • Location: India, India
  • Country: India
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAAF3X8J74AVO922RUY4AGQDHCS
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Activists of the regional political outfit Dravida Kazhagam (DK) gathered in Coimbatore, an industrial city in India's southern state of Tamil Nadu on Thursday (April 28) to stage a mass demonstration demanding the prosecution of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
    They accuse the president of war crimes, including the massacre of Tamil civilians and staged the demonstration following a report released by the United Nations in which it has termed Rajapaksa as a 'war criminal'.
    A panel appointed by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon observed in the report that during the onslaught by the Tamil Army on the Tamilians' militant outfit, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during 2008-2009, it found with evidence the guilt of the Sri Lankan government.
    They report said the government was guilty of war crimes and recommended that those crimes be investigated and suspects prosecuted.
    Veluswamy, an active supporter of DK said the report only reiterated what sympathisers of the Sri Lankan Tamilians' cause have always said.
    "The United Nations has declared the ruthless Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa as a war criminal. This is the same statement which we have been making from the beginning and this is what the U.N. has come out with after a detailed committee looking into the matter. In this background, we demand there should be no cooperation of the Indian government with Sri Lanka," said Veluswamy.
    The demonstrators also demanded the Indian government withdraw its support to the Sri Lankan government.
    Tens of thousands of civilians were killed and war crimes were committed in the final months of Sri Lankan Army's onslaught on the LTTE.
    Sri Lanka's government has consistently denied allegations that it targeted civilians. However, Colombo has acknowledged that some were killed as troops advanced on an ever-shrinking patch of land on the northeastern coast of the Indian Ocean island nation.
  • Copyright Holder: ANI (India)
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register