Sri Lanka: Jaffna is an open prison, Dr Jayadevan says at end of fact-finding mission

Sunday, 24 February 2008

Dr Jayadevan and his team of ten eminent persons have returned from a weeklong fact finding mission to Sri Lanka that included visits to some of the most volatile parts of the island. In the coming days, the team will submit an urgent report to the British parliament, lobbying for a United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission to be set-up in the island. Although the visit was organized by British authorities and carried out with the approval of the Sri Lankan Embassy in London, the team was prevented from traveling to the Batticaloa district by the Sri Lankan military.

Dr Jayadevan says that the Sri Lankan military prevented the team's planned visit to Batticaloa to hide the lawlessness gripping that part of the island.

"They say that they have 'liberated the east', but still use security as a reason to prevent people from traveling to the so called 'liberated region'," Dr Jayadevan said.

He went on to add that the "government forces were probably sacred of the team documenting incidence of child abductions by the Pillaiyan Group which operates under the auspicious of the government".

Speaking of his travel to the Jaffna peninsula, Dr Jayadevan said that the people are living in an "open prison". "About one million Tamils are being herded and controlled inside a barbed wire cage by 50, 000 Sinhala guards," the eminent academic commented on his observation of life in Jaffna.

Asked of life in Colombo, Dr Jayadevan said: "Even the Sinhala people are getting sick of militarization of the entire island. But many are afraid to open their mouths for fear of being whisked away in white vans and labeled Sinhala tigers."

A documentary on Dr Jayadevan's visit to Sri Lanka will be shown on Tharisanam TV in Europe, and TVI in Canada.

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