COLOMBO: The chief minister of Sri Lanka’s Tamil-majority Northern Province has called for carrying out accountability for war crimes before adoption of a new constitution.

C. V. Wigneswaran said that the constitution would not satisfy Tamils unless accountability issues were addressed.

Addressing the Tamil Peoples’ Council in his capacity as its co-chairman in Jaffna on Sunday, he said that he had received information from someone involved in the constitution making process that the government was planning to brush accountability under the carpet.

He said that there were attempts to show the international community before the September session of the UN Human Rights Council, that the government is working on a new constitution and thereby to address the political grievances of the Tamils.

The chief minister alleged that the plan is to get the new constitution passed by the March session of the UNHRC in order to divert attention from the accountability issue.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2016