Vigneswaran writes to UN

The Leader of Tamizh Makkal Koottanii and former NP CM, Jstice C.V.Wigneswaran has written a letter to the Secretary of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres that UNHRC Monitoring group has to be appointed for Sri Lanka to monitor the Human Rights Violations that are continuing in the North and East of Sri Lanka and to appoint a special representative of the UNHRC in Sri Lanka.

Wigneswaran has accused in this letter that the Army is being massed in North and East and with their collaboration Sinhala Colonization undertaken on lands of the Tamil people and creating further Buddhist domination here.

The full letter is as follows:

We respectfully recall your attention toward the urgent need for a United Nations Monitoring Mission to record ongoing human rights violations in the North-East of the island of Sri Lanka, as first requested two years ago. We furthermore reiterate our request that the UN Human Rights Council should appoint a permanent Special Rapporteur for human rights in Sri Lanka.

Currently, there are ten military check points between the Tamil-dominated areas of Vavuniya and Jaffna. By contrast, there are nearly none between the capital of Colombo and Vavuniya. These military checkpoints are the sites of countless human rights violations: targeted harassment of Tamils (particularly Tamil women) and arbitrary detentions.

Sri Lanka’s concentration of the military in the North-East compromises its ability to secure many regions of the island against terror threats. Meanwhile, the State misuses emergency regulations to keep the Tamil people in a position of political and social subjugation, allowing militarized colonization of lands and entrenched Buddhist supremacy in society to continue unabated.

We highlight the urgent need for a Special Rapporteur to entertain the numerous petitions submitted by the families of disappeared people. The Rapporteur should also address the many complaints of human rights violations perpetrated by Sri Lankan personnel, which have accumulated over the past ten years.

This tenth anniversary of the Mullivaikal massacre commemorates indiscriminate Sri Lankan Army killings and disappearances of over 70,000 Tamil civilians who are unaccounted for since the final phases of the armed conflict (according to paragraph 34 of the 2012 Secretary-General’s Internal Review Panel on UN Action in Sri Lanka). In addition to these non-combatants, the Sri Lankan army killed several high-ranking leaders of the Tamil Militants who surrendered with white flags after negotiations with State Military officials.

On this solemn date, we emphasize the need to address the grievous violations of ongoing human rights’ violations in Sri Lanka both during the war and thereafter, which is paramount for the rule of international law, security, and prosperity of the region. (Tamil Diplomat)