In the wake of photographs and forensic evidence that appear to confirm a terrible war crime occurred three years ago with LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran’s innocent young son brutally killed, Sri Lanka has a lot to answer for.
The least it can do is order an independent inquiry by an international panel of eminent people. With emotions running high in Tamil Nadu and northern Sri Lanka, where most people feel fellow Tamils have been butchered in the name of the war against terror, it’s possible to see a logical step ahead is to get at the truth. To do that, Sri Lanka must shed its hypersensitivity and accept a credible, independent probe into the question of whether a child was eliminated in cold blood.
It takes rare courage to admit an Army may have violated the rules of engagement in a conflict zone. While it may even be possible to rationalise the death of the head of a terrorist outfit who waged a war against a nation, how can the killing of his 12-year-old son be justified except as the product of a medieval mindset?
The compulsions of Indian foreign policy may well force it to see beyond Tamil sentiments and look at Sri Lanka as a neighbour that should be kept out of the Chinese sphere of influence. New Delhi’s softening of the UN resolution against Sri Lanka was a consequence of that. But the least India can do now is push Sri Lanka towards coming clean by agreeing to a fair inquiry.