Thailand Urged to Arrest Visiting Former Sri Lankan President Gothabaya for Tamil Genocide: TGTE

"All three UN High Commissioners for Human Rights, HC Navi Pillai, HC Zeid, and HC Bachelet calls for prosecution under universal jurisdiction"

BANGKOK , THAILAND , August 11, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ --

Responding to reports that former Sri Lankan President Gothabaya Rajapakse who is On the Run will go to Thailand, The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) urged Thai authorities, not to give him "Safe Heaven" but arrest him under Universal Jurisdiction for committing Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, and War Crimes against Tamil people.

It further stated that "if Gotabaya is allowed to return to Sri Lanka, he may be prosecuted for corruption, but will never be prosecuted for atrocity crimes committed against Tamil people."

It noted that then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, the 2012 UN Internal Review Report headed by Charles Petrie, and the 2015 Report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein there are reasonable grounds to believe that Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes were committed. It further said that "reasonable grounds "is the same standard upon which the International Criminal Court (ICC) issues arrest warrants.

Furthermore, the international laws namely the 1949 Geneva Conventions, 1977 Additional Protocol 1, and 1948 Convention on Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and Singapore domestic laws section 3 of the Geneva Convention Act (1973) warrant the arrest and prosecution of Mr.Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Command Responsibility under international criminal law mandates that Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa who was the Secretary of Defense during the final stages of the armed the conflict between the state of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009 and his personal involvement in the notorious " white flag " incident mandates that he be arrested and prosecuted.

Citing the observation made in the UN Expert Panel Report that " the root cause of the conflict is the real or perceived exclusion of Tamils in Sri Lankan political process " and the observation of the UN High Commissioner in her 2021 report " a dangerous exclusionary and majoritarian discourse " it is stated that that the Sri Lanka state including its judiciary is ethnocentric and racist, thus Tamils do not have space for justice in the island.

All three UN High Commissioners for Human Rights, HC Navi Pillai, HC Zeid, and HC Bachelet calls for prosecution under universal jurisdiction.


ADDITIONAL IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka faced repeated mass killings in 1958, 1977, and 1983 and the mass killings in 2009 prompted UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to appoint a Panel of Experts to report on the scale of the killings.

According to UN internal review report on Sri Lanka, over 70 thousand Tamils were killed in six months in early 2009 and Tamil women were sexually assaulted and raped by the Sri Lankan Security forces.

International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) in February 2017 handed over details to UN of Sri Lankan Military run "Rape Camps", where Tamil women are being held as “sex slaves”. Also, according to UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office report on April 2013, there are over 90 thousand Tamil war widows in Sri Lanka.

Thousands of Tamils disappeared, including babies and children. UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances stated in 2020 that the second highest number of enforced disappearance cases in the world is from Sri Lanka.

According to this UN report, the killings and other abuses that took place amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Independent experts believe that there are elements of these abuses that constitute an act of genocide.

Members of the Sri Lankan security forces are almost exclusively from the Sinhalese community and the victims are all from the Tamil community.

Tamils overwhelmingly voted in a Parliamentary election in 1977 to establish an independent and sovereign country called Tamil Eelam. This Parliamentary election was conducted by the Sri Lankan Government.


*ABOUT THE TRANSNATIONAL GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL EELAM (TGTE):

The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) is a democratically elected Government of over a million strong Tamils (from the island of Sri Lanka) living in several countries around the world.

TGTE was formed after the mass killing of Tamils by the Sri Lankan Government in 2009.

TGTE thrice held internationally supervised elections among Tamils around the world to elect 135 Members of Parliament. It has two chambers of Parliament: The House of Representatives and the Senate and also a Cabinet.

TGTE is leading a campaign to realize the political aspirations of Tamils through peaceful, democratic, and diplomatic means and its Constitution mandates that it should realize its political objectives only through peaceful means. It’s based on the principles of nationhood, homeland and self-determination.

TGTE seeks that the international community hold the perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against the Tamil people to account. TGTE calls for a referendum to decide the political future of Tamils.

The Prime Minister of TGTE is Mr. Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, a New York based lawyer.

Follow on Twitter: @TGTE_PMO

Email: pmo@tgte.org
Web: www.tgte-us.org
Twitter: @TGTE_PMO

Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran
Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE)
+1 614-202-3377
r.thave@tgte.org
Visit us on social media:
Facebook
Twitter
Other