Jaya demands immediate steps to make Rajapakse stand trial

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AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa today demanded that the government take 'immediate steps' to make Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse stand trial for alleged war crimes during the conflict between the Lankan armed forces and the LTTE following a UN report.

"The UN Panel report is very clear. It lists out the war crimes of the Sri Lankan government," Jayalalithaa said in a statement here.

Quoting from the report, she said Lankan forces 'had shelled no fire zones and hospitals, deprived humanitarian aid in the form of food supply and medicine'.

Slamming her arch rival and DMK president M. Karunanidhi for his 'three-hour fast' in 2009 demanding a halt to the Lankan Government offensive, she said the UN report 'clearly holds that the carnage lasted till May 2009, well after Karunanidhi had made his dubious claim that hostilities had ended following his fast on April 27'.

"The Indian Government, on its part, should initiate immediate steps to make Rajapakse and his cronies stand trial in the International Court of Justice for his war crimes," she said.

A three-member UN panel had last week called for setting up an 'independent international mechanism' into 'credible' allegations that Sri Lankan military had committed war crimes in its final decisive offensive against Tamil Tigers in 2009.
Describing the report as 'preposterous', Sri Lanka had yesterday asked the UN not to make it public, saying it would cause irrepairable damage to its reconciliation efforts and damage the UN system itself.

The world body has, however, rejected the Lankan request, saying it would publish the report in 'full'.

Key excerpts of the report were carried in a mysterious leak by Lanka's widely circulated Island newspaper earlier this week.