Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has raised the issue of the arrest of a Tamil woman activist and her 13-year-old daughter in Sri Lanka’s northern Kilinochchi district at the meeting of UN human rights body in Geneva.
Balendran Jeyakumari and her daughter Vithushaini were arrested in Tharmapuram in Kilinochchi district on Thursday. The police had surrounded their house in search of an LTTE operative.
Ananathy Saseetharan, a woman northern provincial council member from the north, raised the issue of the arrest of mother-daughter duo at the UN Human Rights Council.
Police spokesman Ajith Rohana said while Ms. Jayakumari was produced before the Kilinochchi magistrate yesterday her daughter was handed over to child care officials.
The police said a shooting incident took place in her house and a suspected LTTE cadre had fled from the house. A police officer was injured due to firing.
Ms. Saseetharan, whose husband was an LTTE political wing leader in the East, was addressing the council in Geneva where she said that Tamils felt disappointed with the substance of the draft resolution submitted by U.S. at the Geneva sessions.
The TNA woman councillor had pressed for an international investigation in Sri Lanka to probe the last phase of the military conflict with the LTTE which ended five years ago, resulting in the Tigers’ crushing defeat.
The UNHRC is scheduled to vote on the Sri Lanka resolution later this month. The U.S.-backed resolution is to endorse international calls for a credible international inquiry into alleged human rights abuses in the island.
