Amnesty to meet LTTE in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 June 2002, 11:49 GMT]
Amnesty International will, for the first time, meet the leadership of the Liberation Tigers during a visit to Sri Lanka this week, the London based human rights group said Wednesday. “[The delegates] will travel to the Vanni to meet with the LTTE leadership during the first week and then return to Colombo to hold meetings with the new Sri Lankan government,” Amnesty said in a statement.

The Amnesty delegation, which will also meet with local human rights organizations, peace movements and the business community, comprises Derek Evans, Claude Bruederlein, and Ingrid Massage, the statement said.

Derek Evans, a former Deputy Secretary General of Amnesty International, is currently working in the areas of leadership development, reconciliation and conflict resolution. Claude Bruederlein, former ICRC delegate and adviser to the UN on humanitarian affairs, is currently Program Director at the Harvard School of Public Health and Lecturer at the Harvard Law School. Ingrid Massage is a researcher on Sri Lanka at Amnesty International's International Secretariat.

The Amnesty International delegation will be in Sri Lanka from 16 - 30 June “to lobby for human rights protection to be put at the centre of peace negotiations,” the statement said.

The delegation will hold a press conference to report on these meetings on Saturday June 29 at the Renuka hotel, the statement said.