Sushma tells UN India committed to rights of Lankan Tamils

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said India was committed to the protection of the rights of the Sri Lankan Tamils, the Hindu reported.

“The anguish with which the members have raised the issue [of crimes committed during the war of 2009], the government associates itself with the same pain,” Ms Swaraj said.

“Our aim is to protect the interests of Tamils in Sri Lanka. You can achieve this through two means: by either doing it forcefully or through persuasion with the friendly country,” she said answering a question from D. Raja of the Communist Party of India (CPI).

The Minister’s comments came in the backdrop of the 34th Session of the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC), where the report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (HCHR) on Sri Lanka was presented.

The report assessed the progress made in the implementation of UNHRC resolution 30/1, on human rights and reconciliation between October 2015 and January 2017, and suggested that more efforts were needed for the improvement of the human rights situation of Sri Lanka.

The HRC’s session is coming to an end on Friday and, despite criticism of Colombo’s human rights record, the resolution is expected to get another extension.