In advance of the 48th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Sri Lankan Member of Parliament and Former Northern Province Chief Minister C.V.Wigneswaran wrote an additional letter to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on ongoing torture and sexual violence in Sri Lanka.
“There is overwhelming evidence that the Police and the Military in Sri Lanka persist in torture. Tamil journalists are being assaulted and harassed. Recent days have seen photographs emerging in social media of their being assaulted and their bearing the wound,” C.V.Wigneswaran said in the letter.
In a letter to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on September 8th, he says, “The state of emergency declared by the GoSL invoking the provisions of the Public Security Ordinance, ostensibly to deal with the supply and distribution of foods and essential items, could lead to a military rule as experienced by this country many times in the past.”
“Under the guise of development projects, Government-driven Sinhalese Buddhist settlements are growing in traditionally Tamil areas with the intent of changing the demography and denying the Tamil people access to their lands. Several Government authorities including the Mahaweli Authority, the Archaeology Department, the Forest Department, and the Wildlife Conservation Department are deployed in this initiative,” said in the earlier letter.
