Stalin to leave for New York, to meet Ban
In an attempt to pressurise the United Nations into acting against Sri Lanka, DMK’s heir-apparent and former deputy chief minister M.K. Stalin is all set to leave for New York on September 20 to meet UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and personally handover the resolutions adopted at the Tamil Eelam Supporters’ Organisation (TESO) conference that was held recently in Chennai. On his way back, he is also scheduled to stop at Geneva to hand over the same resolutions to the United Nations high commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Senior leader T.R. Baalu will be accompanying him. Dravida Kazhagam leader Veeramani and Sugaveera Pandian — both members of the TESO executive committee — may join the duo.
According to sources, the process of securing an appointment with Ban Ki-moon is on and in all probability, the meeting would take place on either September 21 or 22. Sources also said that Mr T.R. Baalu and Mr Stalin would inform the speakers of their respective houses namely Ms Meira Kumar and D. Jayakumar about their impending visit keeping in mind the norm.
Among the demands put forward by TESO that Sri Lanka would find very difficult to accept are conducting a political referendum in the Tamil-dominated areas of north and east of the island-nation to allow the Tamil people to decide their own political future, formation of a United Nations monitoring committee to supervise the rehabilitation work being carried out there and conduct of an enquiry by UN into alleged war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan Army during the closing days of the war against the Tamil tigers, rejecting the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).
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