Wigneswaran writes to Guterres: Urgent need for UN Monitoring Mission to North-East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 May 2019, 22:33 GMT]
Former Chief Minister of Northern Provincial Council Justice CV Wigneswaran has written to UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres urging the latter to appoint a United Nations Monitoring Mission to record ongoing human rights violations in the North-East. The SL military has put up ten checkpoints between the Tamil-dominated areas of Vavuniyaa and Jaffna, and these checkpoints have become sites of countless human rights violations, mainly targeted harassment of Tamil women and arbitrary detentions, Justice Wigneswaran said in his letter sent to UN offices on Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day.

Full text of Justice C.V. Wigneswaran's letter addressed to UN Secretary-general on 18 May 2019 follows:

His Excellency Antonio Guterres
Secretary-General of the United Nations

Office of the Secretary-General
United Nations, S-233
New York, NY 10027
United States of America

Her Excellency Michelle Bachelet
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland


Your Excellencies!

We respectfully recall your attention toward the urgent need for a United Nations Monitoring Mission to record ongoing human rights violations in the North-East of the island of Sri Lanka, as first requested two years ago.

We furthermore reiterate our request that the UN Human Rights Council should appoint a permanent Special Rapporteur for human rights in Sri Lanka.

Currently, there are ten military check points between the Tamil-dominated areas of Vavuniya and Jaffna.

By contrast, there are nearly none between the capital of Colombo and Vavuniya.

These military checkpoints are the sites of countless human rights violations: targeted harassment of Tamils (particularly Tamil women) and arbitrary detentions.

Sri Lanka’s concentration of the military in the North-East compromises its ability to secure many regions of the island against terror threats.

Meanwhile, the State misuses emergency regulations to keep the Tamil people in a position of political and social subjugation, allowing militarized colonization of lands and entrenched Buddhist supremacy in society to continue unabated.

We highlight the urgent need for a Special Rapporteur to entertain the numerous petitions submitted by the families of disappeared people.

The Rapporteur should also address the many complaints of human rights violations perpetrated by Sri Lankan personnel, which have accumulated over the past ten years.

This tenth anniversary of the Mullivaikal massacre commemorates indiscriminate Sri Lankan Army killings and disappearances of over 70,000 Tamil civilians who are unaccounted for since the final phases of the armed conflict (according to paragraph 34 of the 2012 Secretary-General’s Internal Review Panel on UN Action in Sri Lanka).

In addition to these non-combatants, the Sri Lankan army killed several high-ranking leaders of the Tamil Militants who surrendered with white flags after negotiations with State Military officials.

On this solemn date, we emphasize the need to address the grievous violations of ongoing human rights’ violations in Sri Lanka both during the war and thereafter, which is paramount for the rule of international law, security, and prosperity of the region.

Yours Sincerely
Justice C.V.Wigneswaran
Secretary General
Tamizh Makkal Kootanii

Ex Chief Minister
Northern Province

Co – Chairman
Tamil People’s Council
Sri Lanka