Rights and Wrongs

Sri Lanka accused of ongoing torture and abuse of Tamil prisoners

Calls for UK to withdraw from Commonwealth summit in Colombo as report claims brutal human rights violations

by state

•  
• Mark Townsend and Hussein Kesvani
• guardian.co.uk, Saturday 23 March 2013 16.17 GMT

A Sri Lankan Tamil woman holds a portrait of a missing relative at a protest outside the United Nations office in

Colombo.

The torture of Tamil political prisoners is increasingly rife in Sri Lanka with some detainees dying in custody after

suffering prolonged abuse, a new investigation claims.

The findings will intensify pressure on Britain to withdraw from a controversial summit to be held in Sri Lanka

later this year.

Tens of thousands of ethnic Tamils have been held without trial since 2009, when Sri Lanka's military finally

crushed Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels in a decades-long conflict for control of the island's

northern Jaffna peninsula.

Since then, according to a new report (pdf) by the London-based Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice, the

government has regularly flouted laws and violated promises of post-conflict reconciliation through systematic

abuse of these prisoners, many of whom had no links to the Tamil Tigers.

More than 100,000 people were killed on both sides of Sri Lanka's 26-year territorial war between minority Tamils

and troops from the Sinhalese majority government.

Both the rebels and government forces were accused of widespread atrocities during the fighting.

But with Sri Lanka now regaining credibility through its revival as a popular tourist destination and its role

hosting a major Commonwealth summit later this year, campaigners warn that unless pressure is put on the

country's leadership, a vital opportunity to secure lasting peace will be squandered.

Pressure is also mounting closer to home with calls for the Queen and David Cameron to boycott the

Commonwealth heads of government meeting to be hosted in Colombo in November.

A Foreign Office source said on Friday that they had not ruled out attending the Colombo summit despite

mounting unease over Sri Lanka's human rights record, explaining it was "too early to talk about UK

attendance".

An FCO spokesman added: "The UK government has been clear in public and private that we have a range of

concerns about post-conflict reconciliation, accountability and the protection of human rights in Sri Lanka."

On Thursday, The UN's human rights council passed a resolution highly critical of Sri Lanka's record,

encouraging the country to conduct an independent and credible investigation into alleged war crimes with a

previous UN investigation, saying up to 40,000 people were killed in the final five months of fighting alone.

The report documenting the island's human rights abuses was undertaken by Tamil and Sinhalese researchers

from Sri Lanka and London, and specifically examined the treatment of detainees in the wake of a riot in the

country's Vavuniya detention centre last June, that triggered brutal police retribution.

It found that prisoners from the riot were kept in "abominable conditions and deprived of basic human rights".

One case study documents the treatment of Ganesan Nimalaruban, an aspiring post office worker who was

arrested in 2009 and subjected to three days of torture that left him with heart and respiratory problems, the

report says. He later died in custody.

Nimalaruban's family said their 28-year-old son was beaten regularly in prison and required frequent visits to

hospital where, shackled on the floor and denied food and water, he also contracted dengue fever. Authorities

claim Nimalaruban suffered a fatal heart attack because of the riot.

His mother, Rajeswari, insists her son died because of repeated beatings that police have attempted to cover up.

She says her family, left impoverished by Nimalaruban's legal battle, has also been subjected to intimidation.

Another case study describes the ordeal of an artist, identified as MM, who was arrested in 2007. The 28-year-old,

who has suffered from polio since childhood, claims he was forced after days of torture into signing a false

confession stating he had assisted Tamil Tiger rebels.

He said he had his toenails extracted and was then electrocuted, rendering him unconscious for three days. Now

convicted, he has been sent to prison in the central city of Kandy, far from his home in the north.

He has barely been permitted contact with his wife or son, who was born just months after his arrest.

The report also criticises a government rehabilitation programme for former Tamil Tiger soldiers that, it says, is

also blighted by violence and, despite officially being classed as voluntary, is frequently used as a tool to prolong

detention without trial.

The Sri Lanka Campaign report says the treatment of Tamil prisoners has, along with other human rights

violations, been largely unnoticed by an outside world eager to believe that the country's recent conflict is

consigned to history.

Fred Carver, campaign director, said: "The report is an important reminder that not only were atrocities and war

crimes committed on a large scale by both sides during the war but torture, arbitrary imprisonment and other

human rights abuses continue on a large scale in Sri Lanka.

"This is particularly important in the light of continuing attempts by the UK government to deport Tamil asylum

seekers, despite clear evidence – to which this report contributes – that those, such as returnees, who are

identified by the regime as troublemakers are under considerable risk of falling victim to the worst kinds of rights

violations: torture, murder, rape, and arbitrary detention.

"David Cameron must show leadership by announcing that he will not attend the Commonwealth summit if it

takes place in Colombo."

The island is currently enjoying a rejuvenation of its tourism industry.

Lonely Planet, the travel guide book, recently voted Sri Lanka as its top tourist destination for 2013

Sri Lanka's Ominous Authoritarian Turn

Written by Our Correspondent

Thursday, 21 February 2013

Asia Sentinel    Rajapakse cracks down The International Crisis Group's call for international action will probably be ignored The Mahinda Rajapaksa government in Sri Lanka, more than three years after the end of the devastating civil war that paralyzed the country for 22 years, has instituted a virtual reign of terror against not only its defeated Tamil minority but against many of its own citizens in the south, critics say. The government's repressive nature is hardly news. Virtually since the defeat of the Tamil separatists in 2009, the government has continued to crack down on any dissent. In January, the parliament, dominated by Rajapaksa's followers, impeached chief justice Shiran Bandaranayake, eliminating the last institutional check on the executive branch. The government consistently denies any wrongdoing. However, according to a report released this week by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG), the Rajapaksa regime "has crossed a threshold into new and dangerous terrain, threatening prospects for the eventual peaceful transfer of power through free and fair elections." ICG called for international action to halt the slide to tyranny: "Strong international action should begin with Sri Lanka's immediate referral to the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group and a new resolution from the United Nations Human Rights Council calling for concrete, time-bound actions to restore the rule of law, investigate rights abuses and alleged war crimes by government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and devolve power to Tamil and Muslim areas of the north and east." That is unlikely to happen. Human rights groups say the Rajapaksa government, now that its power base is unthreatened, has systematically annulled a wide range of human rights, including turning a blind eye to the murder of dissidents and independent journalists. According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, "Sri Lanka remains a highly restrictive and dangerous nation for the press." As many as 20 journalists have gone into exile over the past five years, with nine killed since the end of hostilities in 2009. The New York-based Human Rights Watch, in an earlier report, called attention to similar human rights abuses, including the beating with iron bars of Gnanasundaram Kuhanathan, editor of a Jaffna-based newspaper. The report also pointed out that there has been no government accounting for the deaths of tens of thousands of ethnic Tamils in the wake of the surrender by the Tigers. Sri Lanka is faced with two worsening and inter-connected governance crises, the ICG said. "The dismantling of the independent judiciary and other democratic checks on the executive and military will inevitably feed the growing ethnic tension resulting from the absence of power sharing and the denial of minority rights. Both crises have deepened with the Rajapaksa government's refusal to comply with the United Nations Human Rights Council's March 2012 resolution on reconciliation and accountability." Although the government claims to have implemented many of the recommendations of a truth and reconciliation commission established at the urging of the Human Rights Council, there has been no meaningful progress on the most critical issues, the ICG says. "The government has conducted no credible investigations into allegations of war crimes, disappearances or other serious human rights violations," the report said. "There has been no progress toward a lasting and fair constitutional settlement of the ethnic conflict through devolution of power, the military still controls virtually all aspects of life in the north, intimidating and sidelining the civilian administration, more than 90,000 people remain displaced in the north and east, amid continued land seizures by the military, with no effective right of appeal and no fair process for handling land disputes." Government security forces have broken up peaceful Tamil protests in the north, detained students on questionable charges of working with the defeated Tamil Tigers and actively harassed Tamil politicians, the report says, responding with force to protest and dissent on the part of its own citizens in the south as well, deploying troops to prevent the newly impeached chief justice and supporters from visiting the Supreme Court while pro-government groups have attacked lawyers protesting the impeachment. "Analysts and government critics have warned of Sri Lanka's growing authoritarianism since the final years of the civil war, but developments over the last year have worsened the situation," the report says. "The president's willingness and ability to push through the impeachment - in the face of contrary court rulings, unprecedented opposition from civil society and serious international concern - confirms his commanding political position." The impeachment completes what the ICG called a "constitutional coup" initiated in September 2010 by the 18th amendment, which removed presidential term limits and the independence of government oversight bodies. The government in 2010 jailed Saranath Fonseca, the commanding general who defeated the Tamil Tigers, when he sought to declare his candidacy to run against Rajapaksa. "The consolidation of power paves the way for moves that could further set back chances of sustainable peace." The report continues. "The president and his two most powerful brothers - Defense Secretary Gotabaya and Economic Development Minister Basil - have signaled their intention to weaken or repeal the provinces' already minimal powers. As the government makes explicit its hostility to meaningful power sharing between the center and the Tamil-speaking north and east, Tamil identity and political power are being systematically undermined by the military- led political and economic transformation of the northern province." Ominously, sectarian violence has also begun to spread, with a recent upsurge in attacks by militant Buddhists on Muslim religious sites and businesses. The government has done little to discourage these attacks. "Should such provocations continue, the remarkable moderation of Sri Lanka's Muslims could face serious tests," the report notes. "Given the country's history of violent resistance to state power perceived as unjust, the authoritarian drift can only increase the risk of an eventual outbreak of political violence." Sri Lankans of all ethnicities who have struggled to preserve their democracy deserve stronger international support. The Human Rights Commission's 2012 resolution was an important first step, but more is needed, the report continues. "This should begin with a stronger HRC resolution in March 2013, which must demand concrete reforms to end impunity and restore the rule of law; mandate the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to monitor violations and investigate the many credible allegations of war crimes committed in the final months of the war by both sides; and, where possible, identify individuals most responsible." The ICG published a list of specific demands on the government including implementing core recommendations of the truth commission, strengthening the rule of law, greater accountability, devolution of power and national reconciliation, through a process that includes opposition political parties and independent civil society representatives of all ethnic communities, meaningful reconciliation and others. However, given the overwhelming sway of the Sri Lankan government, it is unlikely that any of the recommendations will be heeded. Likewise, recommendations to the Human Rights Council to attempt to deal with the situation are likely to be ignored by the government if they are put in place, as are recommendations to the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Handed a snack, and then executed: the 12-year-old son of a Tamil Tiger

Photographs show boy was held before he was killed at close range.

Andrew Buncombe  Monday 18 February 2013
 
 Balachandran Prabhakaran after he was captured

This is proof, beyond reasonable doubt, of the execution of a child – not a battlefield death

New photographs have emerged which raise fresh questions about the conduct of Sri Lanka’s armed forces

during the final stages of the operation against Tamil rebels and have led to claims the 12-year-old son of the

militants’ leader may have been summarily executed.

A series of photographs taken a few hours apart and on the same camera, show Balachandran Parabhakaran,

son of Villupillai Prabhakaran, head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

One of them shows the boy sitting in a bunker, alive and unharmed, apparently in the custody of Sri Lankan

troops. Another, a few hours later, shows the boy’s body lying on the ground, his chest pierced by bullets.

The images were taken in May 2009 at the very end of the Sri Lankan government’s operation to crush the LTTE,

which had launched a bloody, decades-long insurgency against the state that led to the deaths of perhaps 70,000

people. The authorities always said Parabhakaran’s son was killed in cross-fire, as troops moved in to take the

LTTE’s last stronghold, located on a scrap of coastline near Mullaitivu in the north-east of the country.

But the images, contained in a new documentary, No Fire Zone, which will be screened at the Geneva Human

Rights Film Festival during the UN Human Rights Council meeting in March, suggest the boy was captured alive and killed at a later stage.

A forensic pathologist who examined the later images for the film-makers, said the boy was shot five times in the

chest. Furthermore, propellant burns around the wound suggest he was shot at very close range.

“The new photographs are enormously important evidentially because they appear to rule out any suggestion

that Balachandran was killed in cross-fire or during a battle. They show he was held, and even given a snack,

before being taken and executed in cold blood,” claimed the film’s director, Callum Macrae.

“It is difficult to imagine the psychology of an army in which the calculated execution of a child can be allowed

with apparent impunity. That these events were also photographed and kept as war trophies by the perpetrators

is even more disturbing.” The 12-year-old’s father, Prabhakaran, was killed along with most of the senior

leadership of the LTTE as Sri Lanka’s army advanced on the rebels’ position. There were reports at the time that

several LTTE officials were shot and killed as they tried to surrender.

Prabhakaran’s body was displayed on state television, part of the front of his skull missing, also suggesting he

may have been shot at close range. The Sri Lankan authorities have always denied shooting anyone who was

trying to surrender. Last night, Brigadier PR Wanigasooriya, an army spokesman, said Sri Lanka had been a

repeated victim of  “lies, half truths, rumours, and numerous forms of speculations”.

“No substantive evidence have been presented for us to launch an investigation,” he added, referring to alleged human rights abuses.

Sri Lanka has always insisted it did what it could to ensure no civilians were killed during its operation against the

LTTE. Yet a team appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon found that up to 40,000 civilians may have

been killed. The team said there were credible allegations both sides committed war crimes.

The photographs will place additional pressure on David Cameron to announce whether or not he will attend the

Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM), e in Sri Lanka in November. A Downing Street official

with Mr Cameron on his visit to India said on Monday that no decision had yet been taken.

NGOs and organisations, among them the cross-party Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, have called on him to

boycott the meeting.

We shouted loudest over Sri Lanka’s abuses.

Three years on and we’re arming the regime

No matter how much red tape we put in place,

we have no control over how such weaponry is used

Jerome Taylor

Sunday 17 February 2013

Britain claims to have some of the world's most stringent controls when it comes to exporting arms around the world.

In many respects, the checks and balances we place on UK-made weaponry are significantly more onerous than

those provided by our global competitors.

But it doesn't stop British hardware ending up in the hands of some pretty odious regimes.

After all, Saudi Arabia remains Britain's most loyal and extravagant arms purchaser to the tune of more than

£4billion over the past five years.

But no matter how much red tape we put in place to limit who we sell arms to, the simple fact remains that we have

no control over how such weaponry will be used once it leaves our hands.

Nothing proves this better than the Arab Spring. Arms campaigners had warned for years that Western weaponry

sold to nepotistic, cash rich, paranoid and weapon-hungry regimes in the Middle East and North Africa would one day be used on their own people.

Sure enough, when genuine calls for freedom were made on the streets of Benghazi, Cairo, Sana'a, Manama and

Damascus, they were met with bullets – many were made abroad.

The British Government's repeated claims that no export licences would be issued to countries where there is "a

clear risk that the proposed export might provoke or prolong regional or internal conflicts" looked entirely hollow

when – as the Arab Spring raged – one only had to glance at our export lists to see countries such as Bahrain,

Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen snapping up British arms in the preceding years.

This is why it is not surprising to see that we have granted licences to export weapons – including small arms and ammunition – to Sri Lanka.

But it is depressing.

After all, the Sri Lankan army and the Rajapaksa government stand accused of overseeing some of the most

horrific war crimes of the 21st century and have repeatedly resisted pressure to allow access to investigators.

Tens of thousands of civilians died in the closing stages of the Sri Lankan civil war, with widespread reports of

rape, extrajudicial killing and deliberate targeting of civilians.

At the time, Britain was one of those shouting loudest.

Three years on we are selling weaponry to the same regime.

A similar rehabilitation occurred with Bahrain.

When scores of protesters in Manama were receiving nightly doses of bird-shot and tear gas – most of which

came from European arms manufactures –

Britain briefly suspended its export licences, acutely aware of the huge embarrassment such deals now caused.

The abuses continue to this day against Bahraini opposition protesters – yet the export restrictions have been

quietly lifted and last summer Bahrain's King Hamed al-Khalifa was welcomed into Downing Street.

The message Britain sends out is clear: while you are actively turning weaponry on your own people, we won't

sell arms to you.

But give it some time, take your finger of the trigger for a while, and we'll start resuming exports again

Sri Lanka and Nepal Search for Their Missing       

Written by IRIN    
Thursday, 06 December 2012 
 

Adhri Rajbanshi, 70, searches for answers. Photo by Amantha Perera/IRIN

Civil war, lack of government attention, breed tragedy

Nepal and Sri Lanka share few similarities in their post-conflict experiences.

The former has a peace deal, a government ministry overseeing post-war reconstruction, a national program to trace missing persons and an NGO to advocate for their families - none of which exist in Sri Lanka.

But the two do have something essential in common: grieving relatives of the missing.

In her village of Jalthal, 550 km southeast of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, 35-year-old Reena Mecha for years has avoided talking about her husband’s 2004 disappearance during Nepal’s civil conflict.

“At the beginning, there was no one to talk to, no one to understand what I was going through,” Mecha told IRIN. The 2006 peace agreement that ended the decade-long conflict did little to ease her burden.

It was only in November 2011 that she found comfort after joining a support group for families of the missing, coordinated by the Women’s Rehabilitation Center, a local rights group.

Some 1,500 km away, in northern Sri Lanka, 23-year-old Maheswari has embarked on a similar journey.

Her brother has been missing since May 2009, when the entire family fled Kilinochchi to escape fighting between government forces and separatist rebels from the Tamil ethnic group.

Some 40,000 civilians died in the final months of fighting, according to the United Nations.

She and her parents have since returned. “Life is hard, I am trying my best to look for him, but I don’t know where to start or whom to ask [for] information.

There are thousands of others like me here [in the former war zone],” said Maheswari, who provided only her first name.

Thousands missing
There are thousands still unaccounted for in both of these South Asian countries.

In Nepal, the tracing unit of the Nepal Red Cross, which helps reunite family members by tracking down the missing, is trying to locate 1,401 missing persons.

Sri Lankan government data from 2011 estimated 2,635 people in the country’s former conflict zone, Northern Province, are “untraceable” (missing). Other estimates are much higher.

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has recorded 5,671 reported cases of wartime-related disappearance, not counting people who went missing in Sri Lanka in the final stages of fighting from 2008 to 2009.

At the end of 2011, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Sri Lanka had compiled a database of 15,780 cases of missing persons, some of which dated back to 1990.

Mecha in Nepal had one piece of advice for those like Maheswari: It will be a grim and lonely search, and your only solace will be the company of others like you.

Frustrated by lack of answers following his father’s disappearance in 2001, Ram Kumar Bhandari formed a regional group of missing families in the country’s west in December 2007.

Aside from peer support and a forum for discussion, the activist said associations like NEFAD provide political leverage. “Politicians will listen to a collective voice,” he said.

Tracing

The Nepali Red Cross is tracing those missing by conducting periodic interviews with their families. Red Cross staff follow up on new leads with government and other officials.

By contrast, in Sri Lanka, there is no national tracing program thus far, though a local government unit in the northern Vavuniya District carries out local searches.

Piencia Charles, who was instrumental in setting up this Family Tracing Unit in December 2009 (but who no longer serves in the north), told IRIN she was responding to the women she encountered daily who cried in her office.

The unit’s main task is to find children, though it receives complaints about missing adults as well.

“One of their [families’] main expectations is [to find out] what happened to their loved ones, and after repeated [home visits from us and] no new information, they can get very emotional,” Shubhadra Devkota, a tracing officer with the Nepal Red Cross told IRIN.

She said families frequently question whether to continue searching.

Back in Kilinochchi, in Sri Lanka, a church-based counselor who requested anonymity told IRIN that families of the missing were only now coming out to seek counsel.

She said that due to how contentious the issue of disappearances still is – the number of persons missing is disputed – there are few efforts to expand or institutionalize tracing.

“There is a long way to go here.

A very long way,” the counselor concluded.

(IRIN is a service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

This does not necessarily reflect the views of the UN itself.)