UNP parliamentarian Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena has sought the intervention of Mrs. Navanetham Pillai, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to urge the Sri Lankan government to allow a group of MPs to visit the newly established welfare centers as well as the Mannar and Vavuniya hospitals.

In a letter to Mrs. Pillai, Dr. Jayawardena says that all his requests to visit the welfare centers and the two government hospitals had been turned down by the Defence Ministry citing security reasons.

He says that the Defence Ministry had however facilitated guided tours to these areas for Heads of Diplomatic Missions in Sri Lanka as well as foreign dignitaries such as Yasushi Akashi of Japan and Sir John Holmes. Government Ministers and MPs had also been allowed.

Dr. Jayawardena has complained that the 37-member Group called the Parliamentarians for Human Rights, of which he is the founder Secretary General, had been discriminated by denying a visit to these areas.

He said that internally displaced persons from LTTE-controlled areas have been housed in these welfare centers and the Parliamentarians for Human Rights are eager to visit them as well as the two government hospitals to see for themselves the prevailing conditions.