At a press conference held at the Jaffna Press Club today, the coordinator of Voice for the Voiceless, Gomagan, announced that an urgent appeal has been made to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, calling for the immediate release of Tamil political prisoners.
“We have submitted a memorandum to the United Nations Commissioner outlining our demand for the release of Tamil political prisoners,” Gomagan stated. “At the same time, we had previously urged the Government of Sri Lanka to address this issue as well.”
The statement comes in the wake of UN High Commissioner Volker Türk’s recent visit to Jaffna, during which he met with families of the disappeared, visited the Chemmani mass gravesite, and received numerous memoranda from Tamil civil society groups and organisations.
Gomagan noted that the High Commissioner’s visit to Jaffna and Trincomalee allowed him to directly witness the hardships endured by the Tamil people and to receive testimonies and petitions detailing their ongoing grievances.
In this context, Voice for the Voiceless reiterated its long-standing demand for the release of Tamil political prisoners, urging that it be treated as a matter of immediate international concern. The issue has been a focal point for Tamil human rights advocates for years, particularly given the systemic use of the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) to detain Tamils without charge or trial, often for years on end.
The call aligns with broader Tamil demands presented during Türk’s visit, which included international forensic oversight of mass grave excavations, demilitarisation of the North-East, and the repeal of oppressive legislation such as the PTA. Türk himself, in his concluding statement in Colombo, underscored the urgent need for the repeal of the PTA and the expedited release of long-term detainees, many of whom are Tamil political prisoners.
