Student parliament convened in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2003, 02:11 GMT]
Hundreds of students from schools in Jaffna district took part in a student parliament held at the Veerasingam Hall on Saturday, sources in Jaffna said. This was the first time an event of this type was organized in Jaffna peninsula, student leaders in Jaffna said.

Jaffna Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians N.Raviraj and M.K.Sivajilingam, Jaffna High Court Judge, S.Varatharajan, Jaffna District Court Judge R.P.Vignarajah, District Secretary Senthilanthanar and several other officials participated in the deliberations organized by the students in the special parliament.

Students assembled in the parliament discussed issues affecting children and teen-agers of Northeast. In particular the hardships faced by the students during the war, harrasment and threat of violence from the security forces, human rights abuses against children, and saftey measures to institute to safeguard children's rights in the event of renewed hostilities were intensely scrutinized and debated during the day by the student parliamentarians.

Resolutions in the form of recommendations for children's issues agreed by the student parliamentarians were passed at the conclusion of the proceedings.

Copies of memorandum containing the resolutions are to be sent to Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Minister of Defence Tilak Marapone and the Leader of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) V.Pirapaharan, student leaders attending the 'parliament' said.