Tigers urge UN Human Rights Commissioner to visit Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 October 2007, 22:57 GMT]
Welcoming the "timely mission" by United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights, Louise Arbour, to investigate human rights violations in Sri Lanka, Liberation Tigers Human Rights spokesperson N. Selvy, Tuesday said the Tamils were expecting the UN High Commissioner to visit the LTTE administered Vanni to get an absolute assessment of the Human Rights violations perpetrated by the Sri Lankan military and its paramilitaries in the Tamil homeland. Tamils, as a people, were disappointed as "the main violator, the Sri Lankan government itself," was exercising control over the itinerary of the visiting High Commissioner, Ms. Selvy said.

Stating that the Human Rights unit of the Tigers was in possession of "exclusive and sensitive details" on Human Rights violations by the Sri Lankan forces and details of Human Rights activists who have been forced to flee the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled areas, Selvy said there were parliamentarians, priests, journalists and rights activists who were forced into exile.

Three Tamil Members of Sri Lankan parliament have been killed, many journalists have been killed and threatened, priests have been targeted, she said. "Even the Sri Lankan government officials of the Human Rights Commission have been threatened by the Sri Lankan military."

The Sri Lankan forces were targeting civilans, NGO workers and civilian health workers in their deep penetration attacks, aerial bombardment and artillery shelling.

"There are hundreds of trauma victims among the school children due to the continued aerial bombardment on civilian targets," the Human Rights spokesperson of the Tigers said.

The economic blockade imposed by Colombo has systematically deprived the Tamil people the basic quality of life, a denial of fundamental human right, which deserved the attention of the visiting High Commissioner for Human Rights, Selvy said.