{"id":121858,"date":"2014-03-18T17:03:34","date_gmt":"2014-03-18T11:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=121858"},"modified":"2014-03-27T19:17:00","modified_gmt":"2014-03-27T13:47:00","slug":"our-silence-towards-atrocities-in-north-invited-terror-to-our-doorstep-in-south-unp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/our-silence-towards-atrocities-in-north-invited-terror-to-our-doorstep-in-south-unp\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Silence Towards Atrocities In North Invited Terror To Our Doorstep In South: UNP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=United+National+Party&amp;x=7&amp;y=7\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">United National Party<\/span><\/a> is concerned about the recent arrests under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act in the North and the breakdown of law and order in the country.<\/p>\n<p>Issuing a statement today the UNP said; &#8220;The UNP once again call on the people of this country, particularly in the South,\u00a0to realise the gravity of the human rights situation. We have been\u00a0misled\u00a0numerous times by thinking that human rights are an issue of merely the people of the North. It is because of our silence towards\u00a0the\u00a0atrocities in\u00a0the North that the terror of\u00a0Weliweriya\u00a0came to our doorstep in the South;\u00a0it is because of our apathy at the killings of\u00a0journalists in the North that Editors of national newspapers were killed in broad day light in the streets of Colombo;\u00a0it is because of our inaction that this regime has been able to get away with crushing all our collective rights.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>We publish below the statement in full;<\/p>\n<p>Recent developments in the North raise serious concerns about the human rights record of the ruling regime,\u00a0while also creating doubt as to whether it is intentionally provoking international action in\u00a0order to gain petty political\u00a0milage.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/karu-and-ranil-colombotelegraph.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-2799\" alt=\"Karu and Ranil colombotelegraph\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/karu-and-ranil-colombotelegraph.jpg\" width=\"295\" height=\"196\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/karu-and-ranil-colombotelegraph.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/karu-and-ranil-colombotelegraph-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/karu-and-ranil-colombotelegraph-800x531.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 295px) 100vw, 295px\" \/><\/a>On 16 March\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Ruki+Fernando&amp;x=10&amp;y=5\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Ruki\u00a0Fernando<\/span><\/a>, a human rights activist,\u00a0was arrested with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Father+Praveen&amp;x=7&amp;y=6\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Father Praveen<\/span><\/a> in\u00a0Kilinochchi\u00a0on terrorism charges.\u00a0Police say they were arrested under terrorism charges.<\/p>\n<p>This comes on the\u00a0wake\u00a0of the arrest of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Balendran+Jeyakumari&amp;x=10&amp;y=2\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Balendran\u00a0Jeyakumari<\/span><\/a> and her young daughter on suspicion of harbouring a criminal. Jeyakumarai\u00a0and her 13 year old daughter have been at the forefront of protests calling on authorities to come clean on the plight of her son who had surrendered soon after the war. The boy, who had been forcibly recruited by the LTTE,\u00a0had surrendered to the military.\u00a0Whilst officials claim there is no record of his arrest, he appeared in a photograph that was published in a government report.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that so many individuals, political parties and the international community have raised concerns regarding the arrest of\u00a0Jeyakumari\u00a0and\u00a0her daughter,\u00a0along with\u00a0that of\u00a0Ruki Fernando and Fr. Praveen,\u00a0illustrates the pathetic lack of credibility of\u00a0the Sri Lankan judicial system.<\/p>\n<p>If any of these individuals are guilty of a crime they should be held responsible after being afforded a due judicial process. However,\u00a0there is a serious question of this due process in Sri Lanka when the Chief Justice of the country was impeached through a\u00a0two-week\u00a0process which was deeply flawed.<\/p>\n<p>The arrests under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act and the breakdown of law and order in this country do not speak well of the independence and efficiency of either the judiciary\u00a0or the police.\u00a0The involvement of the military and the Ministry of Defence while there is a much touted Ministry of Law and Order also do not bode well to credibility of the administration.<\/p>\n<p>These\u00a0arrests come\u00a0particularly at a time when the attention of the world has been drawn to Sri Lanka. One of the main complaints made against the regime in Geneva is that it has systematically harassed human rights defenders and those who have sought redress to their grievances\u00a0through\u00a0international\u00a0players.<\/p>\n<p>The regime is particularly accused of harassing individuals who spoke to Human Rights Chief\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Navi+Pillay&amp;x=9&amp;y=7\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Navi\u00a0Pillay<\/span><\/a> during her visit to Sri\u00a0Lanka\u00a0in September 2013.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that human rights activists are being\u00a0arrested when deliberations at the Human Rights Council on Sri Lanka are taking place, shows that the Rajapaksa regime has little regard for international opinion and scrutiny. The UNP has repeatedly\u00a0called on the regime not to play political games with the future of this country. Despite these calls it is clear that the regime sees the human rights issue and the impending resolution at the Human Rights Council,\u00a0as a political opportunity. From the President downwards the regime has made the Geneva challenge into a political battle cry aimed at the provincial council elections due on March 29.The timing of the election itself suggest the political motivations.<\/p>\n<p>In this backdrop to\u00a0carry out\u00a0such\u00a0ill-timed\u00a0arrests seriously begs the question whether the ruling regime in fact wants the international community to take actions against it. It is baffling to us, as a responsible opposition how anyone could wish to make political mileage at the cost of the country and its people. As we have said before those who will suffer the most due to international action will be the ordinary people of this\u00a0country, and\u00a0not the current political masters who have secured their wealth and futures.<\/p>\n<p>The UNP once again call on the people of this country, particularly in the South,\u00a0to realise the gravity of the human rights situation. We have been\u00a0misled\u00a0numerous times by thinking that human rights are an issue of merely the people of the North. It is because of our silence towards\u00a0the\u00a0atrocities in\u00a0the North that the terror of\u00a0Weliweriya\u00a0came to our doorstep in the South;\u00a0it is because of our apathy at the killings of\u00a0journalists in the North that Editors of national newspapers were killed in broad day light in the streets of Colombo;\u00a0it is because of our inaction that this regime has been able to get away with crushing all our collective rights.<\/p>\n<p>It is now time to change the narrative. It is time to demand that Jeyakumari Balendran, Ruki Fernando and countless others be offered\u00a0their\u00a0due process of justice. As recent history has amply demonstrated,\u00a0what the Rajapaksa regime gets away in the North it then repeated in the South.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":2799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,6969,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Our Silence Towards Atrocities In North Invited Terror To Our Doorstep In South: UNP - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/our-silence-towards-atrocities-in-north-invited-terror-to-our-doorstep-in-south-unp\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Our Silence Towards Atrocities In North Invited Terror To Our Doorstep In South: UNP - 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