Protest in Jaffna against postponement of UN report

A demonstration was held under the patronage of Women Organisation for finding out missing persons in front of Veerasingam Hall Jaffna on 21 February, urging the Government to immediately release political prisoners and demanding the UN Human Rights Council to present its war crime investigation report as originally announced.

Relatives of disappeared people attended the protest holding their disappeared relatives’ pictures and placards. Relatives of the missing, together with politicians from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) marched to the Weerasingham Hall where Tamils died during an incident during the World Tamil Research Conference in 1974.

TNA Parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran, Northern Provincial Council Member Ananthi Sasitharan, Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, TNPF General Secretary Kajendran and Colombo Municipal Council Member Baskara participated in the protest.

Tamil protesters in Jaffna burnt an effigy of the TNA MP M A Sumanthiran on Saturday, accusing him of helping the new Government to seek a deferral of the report looking into allegations of mass atrocities against the Tamil people during the final stages of the armed conflict.

The protest is the latest in a wave of demonstrations across the North-East against the enforced disappearances and ongoing detention of Tamils.