Lawyers Rights Watch call for 'complete' withdrawal of military from N-E

In a statement delivered at the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday, Lawyers Rights Watch Canada condemned the military's interference at the Northern Provincial Council this weekend, drawing particular attention to the attack against the TNA candidate, Ananthi Sasitharan.

Calling on the Sri Lankan government to "fully withdraw its military from the North and East of Sri Lanka", the group demanded that the "withdrawal of the military  should be immediate, unconditional, and complete and should take place
by December 31, 2013
".

Delivering the statement, Vani Selvarajah of LRWC said:
"The interference of the military in the Northern Provincial election in Sri Lanka this past Saturday is one case in point. The military’s interference in the election offers compelling evidence of the government’s endless oppression of Tamils. Uniformed and non-uniformed members of the military reportedly attacked Tamil candidates and their supporters, including in a midnight raid against the lone female candidate, Ananthi Sasitharan. She and her daughters had already fled, but her supporters and an election monitor were brutally beaten by uniformed Army personnel. An earlier attack in Mullaitivu resulted in the death of a Tamil campaigner."

See here for full statement.

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