UN urged to visit SLN officers held at Welikada Detection of suspects-Weerasekera alleged that the government had been harassing some selected military personnel in a bid to appease the UN
Posted on December 12th, 2017
Courtesy The Island
Former Navy Chief of Staff Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera yesterday told The Island that a three-member UN delegation now on a visit here should visit military personnel, including Commodore D. K. P. Dassanayake and Commander Sumith Ranasinghe remanded at the maximum security Welikada Prison over their alleged involvement in wartime abductions.
Weerasekera said so after having visited Dassanayake and Ranasinghe, who had been denied bail several times and were recently re-remanded again till January 11, 2018.
Weerasekera alleged that the government had been harassing some selected military personnel in a bid to appease the UN. Dassanayake was taken in just before Special Rapporteur Ben Emmerson had arrived in the country in early July this year.
A three-member delegation from the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention arrived in Colombo on Dec 4 on a 10 day mission to assess the situation.
José Antonio Guevara Bermúdez, Leigh Toomey and Elina Steinerte are in the process of visiting prisons, police stations and institutions for juveniles, migrants and people with psychosocial disabilities, to gather first-hand information which will form part of their overall assessment.
Office of the UN Working Group in response to a query by The Island said: “The delegation will visit Colombo as well as western, north-central, northern, eastern, southern and central provinces, where they will meet Government officials, civil society groups and other relevant stakeholders.”
The experts will share their preliminary observations at a press conference on Friday (15) at 2:00 pm at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH), Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 07.
The Working Group will present its final report on the visit to the UN Human Rights Council in September 2018.” (SF)
December 12th, 2017 at 8:16 pm
We all as citizens of this country must appreciate what Rear admiral Sàrath Weerasekera and his comrades who loves this nation doing to our Motherland. They fought on behalf of this country and brought peace and prosperity to our nation in whole. I personally feel sad and angry when I think of the situation of our war heroes today. It should never happen in this country in the future. We all know that this Yamapalanaya stooges don’t care about the war heroes or the country except their own well beings. From the beginning they were doing wrong about everything but there is no one to stand against these western and Indian backed parasites. JO should do more on behalf of our Motherland. They are the only outfit we can trust at this moment. They should lead the country for a better future. They should fight more strongly against this government on all fronts explaining the people of the hardships we will have to face if this rotten government continues. UNP rogues must be exposed openly.JO should have a better mechanism to educate ordinary people about the situation in the country in a way that they understands. We hope the new party Pohottuwa will stand with the ordinary people to oust this horrible, treacherous, rowdy government of Yamapalanaya.