Pillay finally brands LTTE, a ruthless organisation

by Manjula Fernando

Visiting UN Human Rights High Commissioner (HRHC) Navanetham Pillay welcoming the Government's achievements in infrastructure development, resettlement and rehabilitation fronts during the relatively short period with the defeat of terrorism said they were impressive and should be recognised.

She said her visit symbolised an offer for support for a credible 'internal investigation' on the alleged violations of human rights during the latter stages of the humanitarian operation which would call off the international cry for an external probe.

Pillay who had been calling for an international investigation on Sri Lanka throughout wrapped up her week-long and extensively travelled visit to the country yesterday saying that 'initiating a credible national investigation was always possible,' she told a media briefing at the UN Compound in Colombo.

However, when the visiting envoy was asked by the media if foreign states should take action against the LTTE operatives and their supporters such as Rudrakumaran and Adele Balasingham, who had found refuge in their land, she was not precise in her response.

She said, 'It was a law enforcement matter and the government might receive international cooperation if it began a credible process to track perpetrators who are now outside the country.'

Pillay said she respects all Sri Lankans, across the country who were killed during the three-decade long terrorism and did not distinguish between the victims, be they Tamils, Sinhalese or Muslims.

She had visited 60 countries in her capacity as HRHC and the visit to Sri Lanka had been the longest.

Recalling a visit she made to Sri Lanka in 2000 to attend the commemoration of Neelan Tiruchelvam she said he was a celebrated legislator, peacemaker and a scholar killed by an LTTE suicide bomber in 1999.

Noting that the LTTE was a 'murderous organisation', she said, "Those in the diaspora who continue to revere the memory of the LTTE must realise that there should be no place for the glorification of such a ruthless organisation."

The UN Envoy said her report in March to the UN Human Rights Council will not only record the lapses on the Government side but will also highlight the atrocities committed by the LTTE.

She welcomed the forthcoming elections to the Northern Provincial Council and the preparations by the Government to criminalise disappearances in the Penal Code while stressing that the Commission of Inquiry on Dissapearances needed to be given a broadened mandate to cover the entire country not merely the North and the East.

She also highlighted the need to implement Witness Protection Laws that had been proposed some time ago.