Sri Lankan war crimes issue rocks Parliament

New Delhi: The second day of the Budget session on Tuesday began with an uproar in both Houses over the issue of alleged atrocities by Sri Lankan forces. MPs created a ruckus in Parliament and showed newspapers carrying reports of a video threatening to expose alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka in Parliament.

DMK, AIADMK and the Left parties submitted notices for suspension of the Question Hour to discuss the issue.

CPI leader D Raja said in the Rajya Sabha, "The government has to take a stand on Sri Lanka, it is an issue of war crime and Human Rights violation. We want the Prime Minister to respond."

The Rajya Sabha had to be adjourned twice following the uproar in the House.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee also spoke on the issue in the Lok Sabha. He said, "PM has written a letter to Karunanidhi and the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, the date is not yet fixed. We do not support any specific resolution for a particular country. We will determine a time to discuss this after discussions with the human rights team," Pranab said.

The DMK has been pushing the Centre to back a US resolution that seeks a probe into the alleged atrocities committed by Sri Lankan forces.

"There have been several such atrocities in the Sri Lankan war. All parties in Tamil Nadu must come together. The Centre should support the US resolution in the UNHRC," DMK chief Karunanidhi said.

We are very sorry that there has been no mention of the pathetic conditions of the Tamils, who are undergoing lot of mental agony. The government has not made any mention of the human rights violation that has taken place in the recent war in Sri Lanka. More than 1 lakh people have been killed in the wars," DMK leader TR Baalu said.

This came a day after a video was released by Britain's Channel 4 showing slain LTTE chief Prabhakaran's 12-year-old son's body stripped to the waist with five bullet holes in the chest.

The video has surfaced at a time when Colombo is fighting off a US sponsored resolution at the UN Human Rights Council seeking to censure Colombo over its alleged war crimes. It seeks an immediate probe into the alleged atrocities by Lankan soldiers. The issue is also likely to be discussed in Parliament.