Govt. hedges over stoppage of protestors in Vavuniya

By Uditha Jayasinghe

Government spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella yesterday refused to comment on the stoppage of protestors in Vavuniya and agreed to conduct inquiries but stopped short of pledging a formal investigation.

He was responding to questions on why hundreds of family members of the disappeared were blocked in Vavuniya by the Sri Lankan authorities while travelling to Colombo. However, Rambukwella defended the police action saying that it was their responsibility to protect the protestors if they had prior information regarding a security threat.

When questioned whether the Government supported the separate section of people who had staged a protest outside of the UN calling for probes into disappearances allegedly caused by the Tamil Tigers, the Minister again hedged.

“Not only American access but the overall thing has to be looked into to see whether there was any truth. We have to check on that as, right now, I haven’t got any information with regard to that. If the reason is not a valid one, then it needs to be investigated because they have said that it is for the people’s safety that they should not to cross certain areas. So I cannot comment without checking on it,” he said.

The US Embassy in a statement called upon Sri Lankan authorities to allow free movement of the protestors.

“The right to freely express opinions is universal and protected under Sri Lankan and international law,” the statement added. It said the US is constructively working with international partners to support these basic freedoms through the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution in Geneva.