NPC Sasitharan briefs Lanka Situation to former UNHRC Commissioner Ms. Navi Pillai.

Northern Provincial Councilor Ananthi Sasitharan  told former United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner Ms. Navi Pillai in Durban that Rajapaksa government when questioned about her husband Elilan, former LTTE political head’s whereabouts after his surrender to the SLA, had said that they had secret detention camps and  would announce to the families how many people are being detained.

She added that but today, the new government says there are no secret  detention camps, no one has been detained and no political prisoners in Sri Lanka.

The two-day conference on Peace and Justice for Sri Lankan Tamils was held in Durban from November 6 and 7, organised by the South African-based Solidarity Group for Peace and Justice (SGPJ) assisted by the government of South Africa.

More than 30 stakeholders, representing a number of organisations in Sri Lanka and the Diaspora, attended the conference which included former UNHRC Ms Pillai.

Saistharan revealed that she has been struggling to secure the release of her husband Elilan ever since he surrendered to the Sri Lankan army on May 18,  2009 after the war ended and that, violation of the human rights of the Tamil people in the North and East of Sri Lanka continues on a daily basis without any respite for the victims.

“We have been making representations right from the village authorities, to the district authorities, to the Minister of Justice, Minister of Prisons and even the President about the whereabouts of my husband and the other detained people.

“I even took up the issue with the United Nations and other International Organisations. After I did this, the Rajapakse Government said that they had secret detention centers and they would announce soon as to how many people are being held in the detention centers. “This was under the previous regime, but after the elections, this new regime of Ranil Wickramsinge has gone back on what Mahinda Rajapaksa himself had promised. This government says there are no unknown detention centers and there are no one held in detention centers.

This government says there are no one held as political prisoners.

Ms. Sasitharan is of the view that India could do much more to alleviate their plight because they consider Tamil Nadu as their “motherland”