Denying doctors to inspect isolation centres, yet another violation of human rights: Fr Jeyakumar

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2020, 19:13 GMT]
Colombo government has failed to evolve a mechanism involving the doctors in the North in the effort to contain the pandemic, says Rev Fr C.G. Jeyakumar, a former director of Caritas Human Development Centre (HUDEC) of the Catholic Church of Jaffna diocese. The operation of security centres without involving the civil doctors is a fundamental human rights violation, he said. The SL government has also avoided involving stakeholders from the public sector and the civil society in the North. The daily wage earners and the families dependent on their income have been severely affected during the curfew. Particularly affected were those in Vanni with limited access to local organisations or diaspora connections to sustain their families throughout the lockdown, he said.



“Especially, the people who are infected need the support of the doctors. [...] They have the right to have access to a medical doctor. I think this is once again, a violation of human rights,” Fr Jeyakumar said when contacted by TamilNet.

He noted that the spread of the disease had taken place within the secured areas, while there was no spread outside.

Fr Jeyakumar said the doctor who had criticised it publicly was right.

It was Consultant Community Physician (CCP) Dr Murali Vallipuranathan who reacted against the dormitory type of isolation centre run by the SL military, where cross-infection among the those detained has been reported.

SL Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) was also committing a human rights violation by baselessly reacting against Dr Murali Vallipuranathan in a letter issued by its secretary Dr Haritha Aluthge.

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