TNA to head to Geneva

By Our Political Correspondent A four-member Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentary delegation will leave for UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions in Geneva, to brief the representatives of the member countries, who will be dealing with the US resolution on Sri Lanka. TNA Spokesperson and Jaffna District Parliamentarian, Suresh K. Premachandran told Ceylon Today the Alliance took the decision to be present in Geneva and to meet the UNHRC representatives on the sidelines of the UNHRC sessions at the parliamentary group meeting of the Alliance, presided over by Leader R. Sampanthan in Colombo on Friday. Premachandran said: “The TNA parliamentary delegation has already sent the letters to the member countries on the meetings the TNA intends to have with them during the Geneva sessions. “At the UNHRC sessions last year, the TNA kept itself away from being present in Geneva and its stance was made clear to the member countries through the letters sent to them. The US resolution, in Geneva last year, had come out with several recommendations to be implemented, including the LLRC recommendations on improving the human rights conditions and on expediting the political process to find a solution to the Tamil question. But the government has not made any move in improving the human rights conditions in the North and East. The Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North and East are still in peril. No action has been taken with regard to the release of the Tamil political prisoners. Two of them have even been killed in the middle part of last year inside the prison in Vavuniya when they agitated for their early release. “More than 30,000 IDPs in the Jaffna Peninsula are yet to be resettled in their original places, even after the war ended three years ago. Therefore, the TNA will urge the member countries to put more pressure on Sri Lanka to look into the unresolved problems of the Tamils in the island,” Premachandran said. According to him, several support groups of the TNA has already started lobbying for the US resolution and the presence of the Alliance’s parliamentary delegation will boost the moves further. The TNA delegation will fly to Geneva on 28 February and the delegation is expected to consist Suresh Premachandran, M.A. Sumanthiran, Mavai Senathiraja and S. Sridharan.

Causes confirmed By Gagani Weerakoon-2013-02-24 The final report of the investigations and evaluation of the Chronic Kidney Disease of Uncertain Aetiology (CKDu) in Sri Lanka by the World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, has identified pesticides and fertilizers as prime causes for the disease. One or more pesticide residues were found to be above reference levels in 31.6% of people with CKDu. Residues are demonstrative of the extent of the environmental distribution of pesticides and certain pesticides are nephrotoxic. Simultaneous exposure to nephrotoxic pesticides may be contributing to the progression of the disease in people with CKDu, the report stated. “Previous studies have reported high Cadmium (Cd) values in fertilizer. The maximum Cadmium, Lead and Arsenic values in phosphate fertilizer from the endemic area in the present study were higher than the levels reported in agricultural soils in certain developed countries. The concentration of Cadmium, Arsenic and Lead in the soil and their impact on body burden and excretion is known to be influenced by many environmental factors. These includes the pH of soil, ability of soil to preserve and supply soil fertilizer, buffering capacity, content of soil organic matter and water quality. The hardness and high content of fluoride in water in the endemic area may also influence the dynamics of cadmium in soil,” the report stated. The study report, which is yet to be publicized or shared with other relevant parties, has also stated the level of Cadmium and Lead in vegetables and Cadmium in freshwater fish from the endemic area are above the maximum levels stipulated by authorities. It stated the pesticide residues and higher level of Arsenic, Cadmium and Lead were detected in samples of urine, hair and nail tested from people in the North Central Province, which was identified as one of the prime endemic area of CKDu.