COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) – Hundreds of ethnic Tamils started a four-day protest march from Eastern to Northern Sri Lanka on Wednesday to demand justice for civilians killed and forcibly disappeared during the country’s civil war, reportedly by at the hands of the government army. .
Politicians, civil and religious leaders on foot and in cars joined the march, which also protests alleged plans of the government to change the demographics of the traditional Tamil interior by establishing the Sinhalese majority there and taking over private land .
Sri Lanka will celebrate its 73rd anniversary of independence from British colonial rule on Thursday. The roughly 500-kilometer march from east to north, which Tamils consider their homeland, ends on Saturday.
Relatives of missing people have also started fasting on Independence Day.
The protests come after Sri Lanka rejected a report by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, calling for “international action to ensure justice for international crimes” allegedly committed during the 26-year civil war.
She said in the report last week that Sri Lanka “has largely closed the possibility of real progress being made to end impunity through a domestic transitional justice process.” She said member states now have the option to refer Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court. investigate and prosecute violations of international law according to “accepted principles of extraterritorial or universal jurisdiction”.
In a 2015 resolution, the Sri Lankan government at the time pledged to investigate alleged war abuse through local courts and make reparations. However, current president Gotabaya Rajapaksa has withdrawn from the resolution.
Rajapaksa played a key role as a top official in the government led by his brother, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who defeated Tamil ethnic rebels who fought for the establishment of an independent state.
Both the government and the Tamil Tiger rebel group have been accused of serious human rights violations.
Government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said the government has rejected the report.
“We are planning our strategy (to respond) and we will make our position clear,” he said.
According to the first conservative UN estimates, about 100,000 people died in the civil war. A later report by UN experts said that in recent months of fighting, perhaps 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians have been killed.