India should stop treating Sri Lanka as a friendly country: DMK chief Karunanidhi

CHENNAI: DMK today demanded that India should stop treating Sri Lanka as a "friendly country" and take steps for a credible international enquiry into allegations of war crimes against the Lankan army during the conflict with LTTE.

Citing the report by retired judge Maxwell Paranagama, tabled in the Sri Lankan Parliament on Tuesday, DMK chief M Karunanidhi stated that while backing a recent UN Human Rights Council report, the Paranagama panel had recommended that international judges should have a role to ensure the credibility of any investigation into war crimes.

"India should not treat Sri Lanka anymore as a friendly country and take efforts for holding credible and independent international probe about war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan army (besides) human rights violations and genocide," he said.

This probe should be held outside of Sri Lanka at a "common location" as that alone would ensure that "true culprits" will be found to ensure action could be taken against them, he said in a statement here.

The DMK President referred to Paranagama, saying that there was evidence to suggest that footage obtained by the Channel 4 documentary 'No Fire Zone' showing Sri Lankan soldiers executing Tamil prisoners was genuine even as surrendering LTTE leaders were also allegedly killed.

In the report dated August 2015, retired Judge Maxwell Paranagama had said that "There are credible allegations, which, if proved to the required standard, may show that some members of the armed forces committed acts during the final phase of the war that amounted to war crimes giving rise to individual criminal responsibility."

The probe panel commissioned by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, during whose tenure hostilities between the Army and rebel LTTE peaked, resulting in large civilian casualties, had said that to the list for investigation must be added cases of all those who were 'hors de combat' (out of action due to injury or damage) and allegedly perished while in custody of the Sri Lankan army.