Northern Tamils urge Lanka UN referendum

Sri Lanka's Tamil northern provincial council adopted a resolution on Wednesday calling for a UN-monitored referendum in the north and east to "determine the aspirations of the Tamil people".

"The people can vote at the referendum to express their view on the Tamil political aspirations," provincial council member M K Shivajilingam of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said.

The resolution says that Sri Lanka had failed to implement its commitments under the UN Human Rights Council resolutions "which called for investigations into credible allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity".

The five-point resolution urges the UNHRC to refer Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court, to appoint a special UN rapporteur on Tamil people, impose military sanctions on Sri Lanka, impose a travel ban on Sri Lankan military personnel accused of war crimes and to hold the referendum which should lead to finding a permanent political solution for Tamils.

The resolution came after President Maithripala Sirisena's public statement last week that he would make a special appeal during his address at the UN General Assembly later this month to urge dropping of war crime accusations against government troops.

Sirisena's government in 2017 co-sponsored the US moved UNHRC resolution against Sri Lanka pledging to set up credible mechanisms for reconciliation with the Tamil minority.

But he has rejected the idea to set up international courts to probe war crime charges blamed both on the government troops and the LTTE militants.