Video: Ananthi Raises Arrest Of Tamil Widow And 13 Year Old Girl At UNHRC; Expresses Disappointment At 2014 Resolution

March 14, 2014

TNA MP and wife of LTTE political commissar Elilan who has been missing since being surrendered at the end of the war, Ananthi Sasitharan addressed the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva today, making reference to the TID arrest of a disappearances activist and Tamil widow from Kilinochchi and her 13 year old daughter.

Ananthi

“As I speak here today, the Sri Lanka army has arrested a 13 year old girl,Vibooshika Balendran who comes to every protest crying and trying to find her brother. Her arrest is a threat to every child seeking to protest injustice,” Sasitharan said in her first speech to the Council during the time provided to an NGO working with Women in Africa.

Sasitharan who has been in Geneva speaking with country delegations and diplomats, said that she was addressing the UNHRC not only as political activist but as the mother of three daughters who were still searching for their father.

“Thousands of children like mine searching for their loved ones,” she said.

“The occupying military controls carrying weapons controls every aspect our civilian lives,” she added. Sasitharan said the military was being accused of sexual violence against women and children in the north.

The TNA MP told the Council that the Tamil people were disappointed with the draft resolution on Sri Lanka which failed to set up a commission of inquiry into what she called “genocide” during the war.

“The resolutions don’t address our main problems,” she said.

“As victims we sense a lack of political will,” she said of the UNHRC resolutions.

Sasitharan hailed the special role played by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay and welcomed her annual report.

Watch the video – 11.20 min