NEW DELHI/COLOMBO: Overwhelming pressure and coalition compulsions made India vote in favour of a United Nations Human Rights Council resolution on Thursday, which, however, had been watered down on Indian insistence, and falls short of calling for an international probe on war crimes.On the penultimate day of its 19th session, the 47-member UNHRC adopted the resolution sponsored by the United States, with 24 countries voting in favour, 15 against and eight abstaining.“We had to weigh the pros and cons. What we did was in line with our stand,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told reporters in Delhi, hours after the vote in Geneva. “We don’t want to infringe on Sri Lanka’s sovereignty but our concerns should be expressed so Tamils get justice and dignity,” he added.In fact, sources have been playing up the fact that it was due to India’s intervention that two changes were made by the sponsor of the resolution, US, to dilute the “intrusive nature” of the original draft.The most important change was in Para 3 of the resolution, which added eight crucial words — “In consultation with, and with the concurrence of” in the clause for providing advice and technical assistance from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to the Government of Sri Lanka.“We told the sponsors that it was extremely important to us,” said sources, pointing out that it will give Sri Lanka the time required to implement the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission.Sources said Indian diplomats insisted during negotiations that international help must be restricted to assistance, and not a monitoring mechanism. Further, the report to be submitted at UNHRC’s 22nd session will only be on assistance provided, not on steps taken by the Sri Lankan government.
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