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Rights violations in Sri Lanka rising: report

LONDON: Human rights violations in Sri Lanka have risen sharply since the promulgation of tougher anti-terror laws a year ago, according to a leading U.K.-based rights organisation.

In a report, the Minority Rights Group International (MRGI) claimed that “hundreds” of ethnic Tamils and Muslims in Sri Lanka had been arrested and harassed for suspected links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) since the new laws were introduced in December last year.

It urged the international community, especially western powers, to put pressure on the Sri Lankan government to allow international human rights monitors into the country.

It also called on the government and the LTTE to return to peace talks

Mark Lattimer, MRGI’s director, said: “Anti-terrorism laws have fed into the deteriorating human rights situation in Sri Lanka and resulted in hundreds of killings, abductions and disappearances, mostly of ethnic Tamils and some Muslims.”

The report portrayed a grim picture of the human rights situation in Sri Lanka claiming that it had reached a “crisis point” with numerous reports of extra-judicial killings, disappearances and abductions.

“Many such cases go unreported, but according to Sri Lankan human rights groups some 662 people have been killed and 540 people have disappeared between January-August 2007.

A vast majority of them are Tamils and some are Muslims,” it said, describing minorities as the main victims of the government’s “war on terror”. The report said that in 2006-2007, at least 3,500 civilians were killed and close to 290,000, mostly Tamils and Muslims, were displaced. It accused the government of forcing people to return to their places of origin despite risks to their lives. At the same time, “thousands” of Tamil families were barred access to their homes by creating special High Security Zones.

“Under the cover of the ‘war on terror’, the state is engaging in human rights violations against Tamils and Muslims that range from illegal arrest to land grabbing,” it said.

The report also attacked the LTTE and other armed groups such as the breakaway Karuna faction for targeting minorities in their violent campaign.

“The gravity of the situation in Sri Lanka cannot be underestimated. It demands urgent international attention.

“Serious international pressure must be brought to bear, if the violence is to be contained and peace talks are to be put on track,” Mr. Lattimer said while releasing the report.

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