Parents of the dead and missing tell Pillay:

Do justice by all victims

Ishara MUDUGAMUWA

Members of the Dead and Missing Persons’ Parents Front wants United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights Navaneethan Pillay to do justice by all persons who were killed or went missing during the war, irrespective of their ethnicity or religion. They said they have come to know through the media that she (Pillay) is biased and supports only LTTE sympathisers as opposed to Tamils in general, or the other communities living in Sri Lanka.

The Human Rights Council and the United Nations should commend Sri Lankan War Heroes who sacrificed their lives to defeat the LTTE and put an end to the war since Sri Lanka was a member of these organisations. As a regional power, India too has a responsibility to defend Sri Lanka in the face of these allegations lest they boomerang on it in the future, the members said.

Addressing the media at Hotel Nippon yesterday, a member of the Front H K D Nandadasa said United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navaneethan Pillai was acting in a biased manner in arbitrarily coming to the conclusion that Sri Lanka committed Human Rights violations during the war.

“We lodge our strong protest against USA and other western countries for bringing unfounded allegations against Sri Lanka. We all know about the crimes committed by the LTTE. These countries want to destabilise Sri Lanka and the whole region as they did with Arabian countries through the Arabian Spring starting with Tunisia. Most Arab countries have today become unstable and hot beds of unrest,” he said. “This is the spring the US and NATO have brought to Arabian countries. The lifestyles of people in countries like Libya, Egypt and Yemen have completely changed. This shows the greediness of USA and other western countries for oil resources of these countries. They want the economic resources from these countries to solve their own economic crisis,” he said.

Nandadasa said USA helped Sri Lanka in the final stage of the war and suggested to the political and military leadership to stop the war. “They couldn’t fulfill their wishes. This is the main reason for all these conspiracies against Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka exposed the LTTE as a murderous organisation. We request the USA and other western countries to look in to this matter impartially. The LTTE killed nearly 21,875 soldiers and 10,987 civilians from 1987-2009. More than 82,337 soldiers were injured. About 3,569 soldiers, 448 sailors , 187 airmen and 899 civilians went missing from 2001-2005,” he said.

“All these lives are valuable and they all are our sons and daughters. But no one talks about them,” Nandadasa said. Quoting a letter sent by Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) leader V Anandasangaree to LTTE Leader Prabakaran which was published in a newspaper, he said about 330,000 people of 81,000 families were under siege of Prabakaran as a human shield and they died due to hunger.

“Unfortunately, even the TNA doesn’t talk about these incidents,” he said. Convener of the Front Ananda Perera and many other parents of the dead and missing were also present.