REFUGEE

The Committee for Investigations of the Disappeared (CID) organized a campaign today on Human Rights day, taking the form of a photo exhibition depicting pictures of the large numbers of persons abducted during the past 2 years or so.

The exhibition was scheduled to take place at the Hyde Park, Colombo, and prior approval was duly obtained for that purpose. Having got wind of it, the Govt. ordered a last minute cancellation of the venue. Undeterred, the organizers looked for an alternative and finally succeeded to getting the Colombo Public Library exhibition Hall, where the event, exhibiting over 500 photos went off successfully.

Many relatives of the disappeared participated. They marched in a procession from the environs of Hyde Park to the Exhibition hall. Speaking at a meeting of the participants, Dr. Vickramabahu Karunaratne, patron of the CID and common left candidate, condemned the attitude of the Govt. to black out such campaigns. He said that President Rajapaksa who was a militant human rights campaigner as a Member of Parliament some years ago, has miserably turned out to be not only a violator of human rights, but also a killer of many thousands of innocent Tamil civilians.

Vickramabahu pledged to take forward the campaign relentlessly, both nationally and internationally, until justice is done to victims.

Fr. M.Sathivel, V. Thirunavukkarasu and Chamil Jayaneththi also spoke