Amnesty enlists Trinco killings in push for UN war-crime investigation

[TamilNet,25 February 2011] Dr. Kasipillai Manoharan, the father of one of the “Trinco 5” students killed by the Sri Lanka security forces in 2006, and two Amnesty officials delivered 52,000 signed petitions to the UN offices in New York Tuesday, Amnesty website reported. The petition, which appeared to have been timed to precede the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) sessions scheduled from February 28 to March 25 in Geneva, was the result from the responses Amnesty received following a call for action campaign demanding international investigations as a first step towards accountability for crimes committed by both protagonists in Sri Lanka's war.

(Amnesty Photo: (L-R) McDonald, Foster, and Dr Manoharan handing over petition to UN official)

US Director of Amnesty International, Jim McDonald and Yolanda Foster, the Amnesty researcher on Sri Lanka, accompanied Dr. Manoharan to deliver the petitions to the U.N. "We pressed the UN to act on our petition without delay and let them know we would be following up to make sure an international investigation is promptly established," Jim McDonald said in a posting at the Amnesty website. http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=33598