North CM claims white van abductions continued

Northern Province Chief Minister C V Wigneswaran claims that?even after the 8^th of January this year there had been incidents of white van abductions.

In a message to mark world human rights day today, Wigneswaran said that in every sense, the rights of Tamils as individuals and as a people have been violated over the course of time by the Governments of Sri Lanka.

He said that successive Governments of Sri Lanka have indulged in human rights? violations continually.

?In every sense, the rights of Tamils as individuals and as a People have been violated over the course of time by the Governments of Sri Lanka,? he said.

?The right to life of individual Tamils has been violated through extra-judicial killings in which the State and its agents actively participated. There has been no accountability for any of the killings that have taken place.?The right to liberty, again a non-defeasible right stated in the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, continues to be violated with the incarceration of many hundreds of young Tamils detained without trial or deprived of proper hearings. Their continued imprisonment is a continuing violation of this important right by the Government of Sri Lanka. It is incumbent on the part of the Government of Sri Lanka to release these prisoners without any delay and demonstrate its commitment to human rights. I am expecting His Excellency the President conscious of the need to release our Tamil political prisoners, to soon do so by an open Amnesty,? he said.

Wigneswaran said that consistency with human rights requires that in the light of various violations of human rights by successive Governments of Sri Lanka, a constitutional solution consistent with the right to self determination of the Tamil people is brought about so as to find a lasting solution to the continuous violations of Tamil rights.

He also said that an obligation arises on the Government of Sri Lanka to ensure that the perpetrators of the genocide are brought to trial. However he noted that recent statements by Government leaders are confusing and contradictory but consistent in one respect in that they play down the extent of the system crimes so clearly outlined by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in its Report on Sri Lanka this year. (Colombo Gazette)