Health of hunger striking elderly women deteriorates, Wigneswaran urges immediate action
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 January 2017, 20:35 GMT]
The health situation of the hunger striking elderly women of Eezham Tamils subjected to enforced disappearances in SL military controlled Vavuniyaa during and after the genocidal onslaught on Vanni in 2009 has escalated on the third day of their fast-unto death campaign demanding immediate answers from the SL State and its backers on the whereabouts of their kith and kin. Medical sources in Vavuniyaa have urged hospitalisation of four women who were treated by the doctors on Wednesday. But, the hunger strikers have refused to cooperate and continue their struggle. In the meantime, several activists in Jaffna, Trincomalee and other places have called for escalation of hunger strike in other places. Social media activists are also organising a fasting campaign expressing their solidarity.
The health situation of the hunger striking elderly women of Eezham Tamils subjected to enforced disappearances in SL military controlled Vavuniyaa during and after the genocidal onslaught on Vanni in 2009 has escalated on the third day of their fast-unto death campaign demanding immediate answers from the SL State and its backers on the whereabouts of their kith and kin. Medical sources in Vavuniyaa have urged hospitalisation of four women who were treated by the doctors on Wednesday. But, the hunger strikers have refused to cooperate and continue their struggle. In the meantime, several activists in Jaffna, Trincomalee and other places have called for escalation of hunger strike in other places. Social media activists are also organising a fasting campaign expressing their solidarity.
The SL military intelligence is closely monitoring everyone, including the reporters, who are in contact with the fasting mothers in Vavuniyaa.
The rights watchdogs based in Colombo are completely ignorant on the struggle of the relatives of enforced disappeared Tamils in Vavuniyaa. The rights watchdogs that praise Colombo regime for ‘freedom of movement’ and ‘freedom of expression’ have adopted a biased position, the Tamil activists say.
“In the past, it was those who
mobilised showing solidarity with those waging struggle, who were
subjected to surveillance and later became victims of white-van
abductions and targeted harassment. The same military is now doing
field-surveillance in addition to human surveillance deploying various
levels of sophistication. Even the foreign diplomats, when complained
about the on-going surveillance, were asking Tamil activists that no
action could be taken to protect the protesters from the prying eyes of
SL military intelligence as the military was only using its right to
gather information,” one of the hunger strikers told TamilNet on
Wednesday.
“For the third day they have not consumed any water let alone food. Many are quite old and are now looking extremely tired. Soon they would get dehydrated. Unless something is done immediately we may lose the valuable lives of some of the Satyagrahis,” said NPC Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran in a letter addressed to SL President Maithiripala Sirisena on Wednesday.
“For the third day they have not consumed any water let alone food. Many are quite old and are now looking extremely tired. Soon they would get dehydrated. Unless something is done immediately we may lose the valuable lives of some of the Satyagrahis,” said NPC Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran in a letter addressed to SL President Maithiripala Sirisena on Wednesday.
Full text of the letter from NPC Chief Minister Justice C.V.Wigneswaran to SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, follows
His Excellency Maithripala Sirisena
President
Presidential Secretariat
Colombo 1
You may be aware
of the Fast undertaken by the relatives of those who are Missing and
those Political Prisoners in incarceration opposite Vavuniya Police
Station. For the third day they have not consumed any water let alone
food. Many are quite old and are now looking extremely tired. Soon they
would get dehydrated. Unless something is done immediately we may lose
the valuable lives of some of the Satyagrahis.
May I be permitted
to say that this is not the first time I had occasion to address
letters of this nature to Your Excellency. On earlier occasions too I
had written on behalf of fasting persons and Your Excellency was pleased
to take steps in that regard though nothing concrete came about in the
long run.
Sir! your Government came into power inter alia with
the goodwill and franchise of our people. There were considerable
expectation when Your Excellency was elected as President. Generally
your Government opined that the PTA must be withdrawn, that Political
Prisoners must be given an Amnesty, that immediate steps must be taken
to inquire into the fate of Missing persons and so on.
The Office
of Missing Persons is presently only in name. It has no teeth. Even if
it starts functioning in earnest the Panel of Inquirers cannot take
effective steps against Military suspects. They need to forward their
views to the Courts, consequently resulting in heavy delay.The fasting individuals are very weak and old. Anything could happen.
May I suggest as follows –
- That your Excellency direct a Senior Minister to go over to Vavuniya and give the Satyagrahis some assurance.
- A time frame be given for proper steps to be taken with regard to those Missing and / or Disappeared to ascertain their whereabouts.
- One of the fasting individuals, a female, is holding a picture with her daughter standing beside Your Excellency. At least her whereabouts could be immediately ascertained and she could be released to her mother.
- Once the PTA is withdrawn automatically many political prisoners would have to be released. Therefore the withdrawal of the PTA must be undertaken immediately. After all the Government has given an assurance to the world at large that the PTA would be withdrawn.
Your Excellency would have come to know that at Keppapilavu lands other
than those of the displaced were earmarked for release today by the
Army. Steps need to be taken to allow those displaced to go back to
their own lands.
I appeal to Your Excellency to kindly take immediate steps to wean away
the fasting individuals from proceeding with their fast. Any delay would
be to the detriment of all of us.
The tremendous expectations and hopes our people placed in Your
Excellency seem to be eroding in recent times and Your Excellency must
take note of their feelings not only for political reasons but also for
ethnical and humanitarian reasons. I am sure Your Excellency will not
let down our people.
Thanking you.Sincerely
sgd
Justice C.V.Wigneswaran
Chief Minister,
Northern Province
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