Following on from our previous report relating to a visit to the North-East by a US delegation recent earlier this month, further details have emerged in Sri Lanka's Sunday Times regarding discussions that took place.

The envoy, consisting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee representative, Damien Murphy, USAID Director of Governance and Vulnerable Populations, Trevor Hublin and State Department representative Maria Prajo, was accompanied by officials from the US Embassy in Colombo, on a fact-finding mission to the North-East, including Jaffna as well as traveling to the boundaries of the High Security Zone in Vasavilan.

In addition to meeting with the Northern Provincial Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran and the TNA leader R. Sampanthan, the delegation also had discussions with the Northern Provincial Councillor, Ananthi Sasitharan, who outlined the need to act on unaddressed issues of enforced disappearances, as well as the Northern Provincial Minister for Education, Thambithurai Kurukularaja, Minister for Health, Dr. P. Sathiyalingam, and representatives from the Women’s Development Centre (WDC), headed by Saroja Sivachandran.

Outlining that the state police had taken no action with regards to attacks on the Uthayan, the owner, and TNA MP, E. Saravanapavan told the delegation that “journalists from the North are more vulnerable than others.”

Speaking to the Sri Lankan Sunday Times about his discussions with the delegation, the TNA leader, Sampanthan said,

“They wanted to know the progress made in respect of both these matters and accountability issues. I told them that the situation was getting worse and that the ground situation has not improved. I also told them that the Government seems to have not responded adequately.”