Navi Pillay meeting Tamils in Jaffna ended in eyewash, say Tamil activists

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 August 2013, 01:04 GMT]
The UN Human Rights Commissioner Navanetham Pillay met a group of 15 Tamil rights activists and civil representatives at the UN office in Jaffna. While she spent more time with the Sri Lankan State officials, the independent Tamil activists were given just 90 seconds each to present their cases under 8 different themes that included the cases of missing persons, detention of prisoners, land grab, colonization and attacks on religious institutions.

The rights activists said they were not provided enough time to make their cases and complained that the entire tour has ended as another eyewash or even farce.

The mother of Dilruxon, a Tamil youth, who was slain inside the prison in Vavuniyaa following a protest, narrated to Navi Pillay what had happened to her son in the Sri Lankan detention.

In the meantime, the SL military and the Colombo Establishment had brought Sinhala protestors to stage counter-protests in Jaffna.

The Sinhala gangs were held at standby at some halls in the city to launch counter-strikes.

But, as Navi Pillay didn’t reach out to the Tamil victims who had gathered in front of the Jaffna Public Library, the Sinhalese ‘protesters’ didn’t have an opportunity to stage any counter-protest, informed sources told TamilNet.

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