TELO leader to take out march on 'war crimes'

The Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO)’s national organiser and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA)’s member in the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) M.K. Shivajilingam has decided to take out a march from Killinochchi to Nallur in Jaffna, demanding the institution of an international mechanism to go into alleged war crimes. Clarifying that he along with his supporters would be undertaking the march in individual capacity, Mr Shivajilingam told The Hindu on Tuesday that he would begin the march on Thursday. He would be joined by another NPC member, Ananthy Sasitharan. “Whoever wants to join us is free to do so,” he said, adding that a signature campaign would also be carried out in support of the demand, which was for conducting a trial by an international criminal tribunal. It had been planned to conclude the march only after the ongoing festival of the Nallur Kandasamy temple was over, he pointed out. He and Ms Sasitharan met Chief Minister of the Northern Province C.V. Wigneswaran on Monday and discussed their proposed visit to Geneva during the coming session of the United Nations Human Right Council. Mr Shivajilingam said the Chief Minister agreed to hand over to him copies of the official text of two resolutions adopted by the Council in February and September, one on genocide and another seeking international probe, with Mr Wigneswaran’s signature, the TELO leader added. (The Hindu)