The alleged war crimes during Sri Lanka's final assault on LTTE will come up at UNHRC today, with the US set to bring a resolution supporting a domestic investigation unlike the previous one in which it insisted on an international probe.

 

Members from several student federations in the city held a meet in Chennai condemning the American move, the Deccan Chronicle reported. Demanding an international investigation on the Tamil issue, they announced a protest on September 18 in front of all US hotel and restaurant chains.

 

Heads of seven student’s movements participated in the meet. V. Prabhakar, chief coordinator of Tamil Youth’s and Student’s Federation who is headed the event, claimed that around two lakh (200,000) innocent Tamil were killed in Sri Lanka in 2009. It has been six years but justice has not been meted out, he pointed out. However, his claim on the number of alleged victims is significantly higher than the highest estimate by the UN, which stands at 140,000.

 

“We are demanding an international investigation into genocide. We are also demanding an independent referendum for an independent state for Tamils. These are the two main demands we have been raising before the international community,” he said.

 

The US does not recognise this issue as genocide instead it terms this as human rights violation. If the US does not come up with a resolution for Tamil genocide on Sept. 14, a protest will be conducted in front of all American outlets on Sept.18.

 

“We have listed around 70 hotels and restaurants which include KFC, Dominos, McDonald’s and hotels such as Le Royal Meridian. We will hold protests in front of these places,” he said.

(With inputs from Deccan Chronicle)