UNP leader slams Rajapakse regime for "notorious Human Rights record"

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 April 2007, 10:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Opposition Leader Ranil Wickramasinghe, who attended a confluence of the relatives and friends of the missing persons, held in Colombo Monday, charged that the ruling United Peoples' Freedom Alliance (UPFA) regime was responsible for the bad reputation of the Sri Lankan state's Human Rights record. 88 persons have been either abducted or gone missing since August 2006 up to now, according to the records of the Civil Monitoring Committee (CMC), an ongoing initiative by a few involved politicians.



"The attitude that, if a war is to be waged, all Tamils should be annihilated, prevails in Sri Lanka," Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe said.

The confluence was held at Veeramylan Wedding Hall at 3:00 p.m.

"All political parties should unite in safeguarding the human rights of all people," he said.

"The situation, if allowed to continue, would tarnish the entire image of Sri Lanka."

"We hear that persons abducted from Colombo and its suburbs are being held in Polonnaruwa. United National Party (UNP) would not hesitate to do what it can to trace the places where the abducted persons are said to be held."

Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran, UNP parliamentarians John Amarathunge, Ravi Karunanayakke, Western People's Front leader and parliamentarian Mano Ganeshan, and others spoke at the confluence attended by hundreds of relatives of persons abducted or gone missing.





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