Tamil Sri Lankan war survivors complain to UN rights chief about 'life without facilities'

Survivors of Sri Lanka's civil war have complained to the United Nations' human rights chief about missing relatives, military land grabs and a life without basic facilities more than four years after the end of the war.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay visited a village in northern Sri Lanka, on a fact-finding mission, where hundreds of civilians are alleged to have died.

According to the BBC, Pillay is the most senior UN official to visit the north since Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in 2009.

Pillay, who is due to meet senior ministers including President Mahinda Rajapaksa later this week, told survivors that she would raise their complaints with the government.

About 300 people demonstrated in Jaffna to complain that the UN was not doing enough to investigate enforced disappearances and land-grabs.

One of the protesters, Ananthi Sasitharan, is the wife of Velayutham Sasitharan, a top Tamil rebel leader.

According to the report, Pillay's seven-day visit comes after a second US-sponsored UN resolution in March urged Colombo to carry out credible investigations into killings and disappearances during the war, especially in its final stages.

Human rights activists in Jaffna have said more than 700 people disappeared between 2006 and 2009.

Pillay's visit comes as Canada has called for a boycott of a Commonwealth summit scheduled to take place in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo in November.