"If Gothabaya returns to Sri Lanka, he may be prosecuted for corruption, but will never be prosecuted for atrocity crimes committed against Tamil people."

NEW YORK, UNITED STATES, August 16, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ --

Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), said today that wherever Former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapakse goes, they will bring him to face justice before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed against the Tamil people.

TGTE's statement came as reports emerged that former President, who is on the run, has arrived in Thailand after fleeing first to Maldives and then to Singapore. They appealed to Thai authorities to arrest, charge and prosecute him under Universal Jurisdiction for committing international atrocity crimes he committed 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."

According to UN, when former President Gothabaya was serving as the Defense Secretary, around 70 thousand Tamils were killed in six months in 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.

"UN High-Commissioner for human rights in her March 2021 report to UN Human Rights Council, urged Sri Lanka be referred to International Criminal Court (ICC). This call was reinforced by all four former UN High Commissioners for Human Rights, nine former Special Rapporteurs who had visited and written reports on Sri Lanka, and all three members of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka."

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.


*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

Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam
TGTE
+1 614-202-3377
r.thave@tgte.org
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