Sri Lankan Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe confirmed that enforced disappearances were carried out on the island during the previous government led by Mahinda Rajapaksa, in a press cofnerece on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters Mr Samarasinghe said “we don’t know whether they were abducted in white vans or black vans or brown van… but there are people who had been made to disappear.”
“I don’t know the modus operandi for such abductions” continued the minister. “Sometime, some of these people may be living in foreign countries,” he added, stating that Western countries had refused to share the names of those who had sought fled Sri Lanka and sought asylum.
“When I was the Minister of Human Rights, these allegations were raised,” he said.
Mr Samarasinghe served as Mr Rajapaksa’s human rights envoy and represented the government at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva during previous sessions, where he vehemently denied reports of mass atrocities committed by Sri Lankan troops.
For examples see our earlier posts:
No, no, no! (14 Nov 2012)
Sri Lanka squirms at UNHRC (12 Sep 2011)
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