Successive Sinhala governments and Tamil political parties have failed Tamil political prisoners said a recently released prisoner in a media conference. Speaking at the Jaffna Press club on Sunday, Veerasinham Sulakshan, who was released last week, said “For 67 years successive Sri Lanka governments had failed the Tamil people.”
Mr Sulakshan called on the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to be pro-active in securing the release of political prisoners and not just make media statements.
He added that the TNA should also be held responsible if any of the fasting Tamil political prisoners that were fasting died.
Commenting on assurances by the TNA leader R Sampanthan, Mr Sulakshan quoted Mr Sampanthan as saying,
'I trust the President. You should trust him and give up your hungerstrike. If you are not released by 7 Nov we will join in your hungerstrike.'"
Noting that Tamil political prisoners still remained in jail, Mr Sulakshan added,
"Today is 15 November and he is not even in the country."
