INTERNATIONAL\\ The United Nations’s top human rights body—the Human Rights Council—called on Sri Lanka to ‘investigate alleged war crimes committed by both sides during the country’s 26-year conflict with Tamil Tiger rebels. The UN Human Rights Council approved a US-backed resolution that urged the South Asian nation to probe allegations of summary executions and kidnappings among other abuses, but stopped short of calling for an international investigation. A 47-nation council passed a resolution with 24 countries in favor, 15 against and eight abstentions. India voted in favour of the resolution. Sri Lanka and its allies had fiercely resisted the resolution, saying it unduly interfered in the country’s domestic affairs and could hinder its reconciliation process. The head of Sri Lanka’s delegation to the council, Cabinet Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, insisted before the vote that his country had been a model for others in dealing with the aftermath of the conflict, which ended in 2009. He called the resolution “misconceived, unwarranted and ill-timed,” and directed much of his ire toward the US, which had tabled the draft before the Geneva-based council. But human rights groups and ethnic Tamils in exile welcomed the vote. The resolution asks the Sri Lankan government to commit to the international community that it would implement the recommendations of the Lessons Learned Reconciliation Commission established by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The resolution does not seek the appointment of an independent international inquiry commission on the alleged war crimes nor the establishment of an international co-chairs unlike in 2002, to ensure a political solution to the ethnic problem of Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, India took a firm stand despite being in the spotlight over the resolution. Tamils in India, Sri Lankans, international human rights activists and those in diplomatic circles, are all interested to know the way India’s vote will swing. Since the end of the LTTE war, India has consistently thwarted attempts in the Security Council and the UN Human Rights Council by Western countries to investigate war crimes in Sri Lanka. It had supported the Sri Lankan state in its bid to eliminate the LTTE. It seems that India is dissatisfied over the Sri Lankan government’s accelerated militarisation of the Northeast, devolution of powers and the pace of rehabilitation and reconstruction of war-affected Tamils and Tamilian areas. The Prime Minister recently addressed the Parliament and inclined to vote in favour of the draft resolution. The stand goes against India’s conventional position as the government does not vote on a country-specific resolution. The government was also facing pressure from DMK and AIADMK to vote for the resolution.