UN Sri Lanka vote threatens India's government

NEW DELHI (AP) — A United Nations resolution criticizing Sri Lanka's actions during the final months of its civil war against the Tamil Tiger rebels is threatening the stability of India's already shaky coalition government.

A key ethnic Tamil political party withdrew from the government Tuesday over its unmet demands that India amend the U.N. resolution to declare that Sri Lanka committed genocide against its minority Tamil population. The party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, has also demanded the U.N. Human Rights Council resolution include the creation of an international inquiry into the final bloody months of the war. The party also demanded a similar resolution be passed by India's Parliament.

The party, from the southern state of Tamil Nadu, has 18 members in Parliament, five of them government ministers.

The issue of Sri Lanka's actions in the final five months of its quarter century civil war in 2009 poses a conundrum for the Indian government. It is concerned that too strong a resolution will anger its Indian Ocean island neighbor and push it deeper into China's sphere of influence. However, the anger of ethnic Tamil parties in India — and the precarious nature of the coalition — puts it under pressure to take a hard line toward Sri Lanka. A U.N. investigation into the final months of the war indicated that the ethnic Sinhalese-dominated government might have killed as many as 40,000 minority Tamil civilians.

Indian Finance Minister P.Chidambaram said Tuesday that the government was still considering its position on the U.N. vote and any resolution by Parliament would need consultation with its other government allies, a process the Congress party had already begun. He insisted the withdrawal of the Tamil ally would not put the government at risk. National elections are not expected until next year.

The Congress-led coalition is already a minority government that leans heavily on small regional parties and is routinely held hostage to their pet interests.

The U.N. resolution, sponsored by the United States, demands that the Sri Lankan government investigate possible violations of human rights laws during the final offensive of the war. The rights council passed a similar resolution last year that human rights campaigners accuse Sri Lanka of largely ignoring.

The Tamil Tigers had been fighting for a breakaway Tamil state in northern Sri Lanka.