Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera on Thursday said the government would take “stern action” if it came to know that any secret detention centre still existed in Sri Lanka.

Addressing a press conference, he described his government as one “dedicated to human rights of all its people”.

Samaraweera was responding to questions on the observation of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances during its visit last month about a former secret detention facility in the naval base in Trincomalee in the Eastern Province and the reported remarks of former Member of Parliament of the Tamil National Alliance, Suresh Premachandran, regarding the existence of secret detention centres in Jaffna.

Asserting that the country did not have any more secret detention centres, the Minister said: “If someone has information to the contrary, please tell us. We will certainly give you free hand, try and facilitate [you] to visit such places as quickly as possible.”

(The Hindu)