The Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,

Referring to the case of the parliamentarians listed above, incumbent members of the Parliament of Sri Lanka, as outlined in the report of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians (CL/182/12(b)-R.1), and to the resolution adopted at its 181st session (October 2007),

Recalling that with the exception of Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena, who is a member of the opposition United National Party (UNP), but perceived to be a supporter of the Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE), all the other members of parliament concerned belong to the Tamil National Alliance, and that they have been the targets of death threats, attempts on their lives or attacks on their homes, and that in none of these cases have the investigations that were instituted led to identification of the culprits and their being brought to justice,

Considering further that in December 2007, before the vote on the budget, family members of Mr. Ariyanethran Mr. Jayanandamoorthy and Mr. Kanagabasai and the personal secretary of Ms. Thangeswari Kathiraman were abducted, reportedly by the paramilitary group Pillayan, and were warned that they would be killed if the parliamentarians voted against the budget; prompting all of them not to attend the budget session and their relatives were subsequently released,

Considering that, at the invitation of the Parliament of Sri Lanka, the Committee carried out an on-site visit to Sri Lanka from 21 to 24 February 2008, and noting that the Committee's delegation was able fully to discharge its mandate, which was to gather as detailed information as possible from all parties concerned on the case in question,

1. Thanks the Sri Lankan authorities for having received the mission and made the necessary arrangements to enable it to carry out its mandate; also thanks the Committee's delegation for its work and awaits with interest the mission's report and any comments on it by the parties with whom the delegation met;

2. Is appalled atthe kidnapping of persons to pressure parliamentarians into refraining from casting their vote as they see fit since such practices negate the free exercise of the parliamentary mandate, without which there can be no true democracy; and trusts therefore that the authorities will make every effort, as is their duty, to identify and bring to justice the perpetrators of this crime;

3. Also trusts thatthe parliamentarians concerned are afforded the necessary security detail;

4. Requests the Committee to continue examining this case and report to it at its next session, to be held on the occasion of the 119th Assembly of the IPU (Geneva, October 2008).

Note: you can download a complete electronic version of the brochure "Results of the 118th IPU Assembly and related meetings" in PDF format (file size 547K approximately). This version requires Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can download free of charge.

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