Sri Lankan government has failed to uphold promises on Tamil political prisoners – CTC

The Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) said the Sri Lankan government had failed to uphold its promise to release Tamil political prisoners by December 15, in a statement released this week.

Stating that the organisation was “dedicated to working towards the fulfilment” of a UN Human Rights Council resolution that Sri Lanka had co-sponsored, CTC said “the Sri Lankan government must first take meaningful confidence-building measures to address ongoing human rights violations in order to gain the trust of the Tamil people”.

“One such urgently needed confidence-building measure is to address the situation of Tamil political prisoners,” it said.

Earlier this year, Tamil political prisoners who were being detained in jails across the island launched large scale protests and hunger strikes, drawing wide support across the North-East. The issue had also drawn international attention with the British government stating it would “continue to monitor closely the situation of detainees”.  A Jaffna University student also committed suicide over the crisis last month, prompting hundreds of demonstrators on to the streets, demanding justice.

The government had pledged that the cases of political prisoners would at least be reviewed by December 15, but that deadline has since passed with no significant action having taken place.

“While the government has made certain statements regarding political prisoners in the interim, December 15 has come and gone and the Sri Lankan government has yet to follow through on this promise in any concrete manner or present a clear plan on how they intend to address this issue” said CTC.

Raj Thavaratnasingham, president of the Canadian Tamil Congress, stated:
“It is critical that the Sri Lankan government take legitimate action on this issue if they are to build confidence in the Tamil community towards real accountability and reconciliation.”