Jaffna HRC gets Coordinating Officer after an year

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 04:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission (HRC) office in Jaffna which had been inactive for nearly an year without a Coordinating Officer (CO) is expected to function again with the appointment of a new CO, sources in Jaffna said. Mr. Thangavel Kanagaraj, who had been serving as CO in Trincomalee HRC, assumed duties as CO in HRC Jaffna office Tuesday.

The HRC Head Office in Colombo is accused of intentionally keeping its Jaffna office inactive in an effort to hide the numerous incidents of rights violations in Jaffna district from the outer world, civil society sources added.

Thousands of complaints regarding abductions, arrests, forced disappearances and other rights violations made in the past remain unattended for nearly an year in Jaffna HRC since its CO vacated his post without notice, HRC Jaffna sources said.

The vacation of post by the CO was triggered by the arrest of the driver of a HRC vehicle from which explosives were claimed to have been recovered by the police.