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Wednesday, March 14, 2012

India under pressure to reduce support for Sri Lanka

 The Indian government came under more pressure on Tuesday to lessen the diplomatic protection it gives to Sri Lanka, which is accused of human rights violations in the last days of the decades-long civil war against Tamil Tiger separatists that ended in 2009.

The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) asked the government to “clarify” its position, while an ally of the ruling Congress party demanded the government vote for a US-led resolution against Sri Lanka at the current UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva. “The government of India should support the US-backed resolution against Sri Lanka,” said T R Baalu, a Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) lawmaker from Tamil-dominated Tamil Nadu state.

Washington has introduced a resolution trying to hold Sri Lanka to its pledge to follow up on recommendations of a local probe into the bloody end of its three-decade civil war. A vote at the rights council was due sometime around March 23, although the date has not been fixed yet. “The traditional position of India has all along been that we normally do not support any country-specific resolution,” Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the lower house of parliament.
reuters

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