‘No punitive action but cooperation needed’:

India won’t support UNHRC probe

The Indian Government, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will not support the UNHRC probe into alleged human rights violations during the final phase of Sri Lanka’s battle against terrorism.

Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told her Sri Lankan counterpart Prof. G.L. Peiris yesterday that India would uphold the objection to a UN probe that India had articulated in April while abstaining from voting for the US-sponsored Resolution against Sri Lanka.

“We feel that international bodies need to address human rights concerns in a cooperative manner with the countries concerned, and not in a punitive manner,” Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin was quoted as saying.

Minister Peiris had arrived in Hyderabad on Friday for talks with Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu on a USD one million garment-manufacturing town set up by a Sri Lankan firm near Visakhapatnam. He reached New Delhi yesterday for his first direct talks with Sushma after she became Foreign Minister following the BJP registering a landslide victory at the recent Indian general elections.

The Telegraph said that Sushma’s message to Peiris is significant because the BJP had, in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, criticised the previous UPA government headed by the Indian Congress Party, for what it dubbed a soft foreign policy attitude towards Colombo.

Modi, in his campaign speeches in Tamil Nadu, had questioned how the UPA government had permitted a small nation such as Sri Lanka to “look India in the eye” by repeatedly arresting Indian fishermen off its coast.

When India abstained from the UN vote against Sri Lanka in April, the Tamil Nadu BJP accused the Congress-led central government of ignoring the concerns of Sri Lankan Tamils.

India was uncomfortable with the UNHRC vote because it advocated an independent international investigation on alleged war crimes by Sri Lankan forces – a mandate that New Delhi fears could be used against it on Kashmir, The Telegraph report added.

However, Minister Sushma has appreciated the fast track release of Indian fishermen by Sri Lanka - not just since the Modi government was sworn in but throughout 2014, including the months when the BJP was accusing the Congress of being soft on Colombo.

Since January, 804 Indian fishermen have been released from Sri Lankan jails, including 249 since the May 26 swearing-in, the Indian Foreign Ministry said.