SRI LANKA
DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF SRI LANKA
Head of state: Mahinda Rajapakse
Head of government: Ratnasiri WickremanayakeDeath penalty: abolitionist in practiceInternational Criminal Court: not ratified
The human rights situation in Sri Lanka deteriorateddramatically. Unlawful killings, recruitment of childsoldiers, abductions, enforced disappearances andother human rights violations and war crimesincreased.
Civilians were attacked by both sides asfighting escalated between the government and theLiberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Hundreds ofcivilians were killed and injured and more than215,000 people displaced by the end of 2006.
Homes, schools and places of worship weredestroyed.
Although both sides maintained theywere adhering to the ceasefire agreement, by mid-2006 it had in effect been abandoned. Emergencyregulations, introduced in August 2005, remained inforce.
A pattern of enforced disappearances in thenorth and east re-emerged. There were reports oftorture in police custody; perpetrators continued tobenefit from impunity. BackgroundAlthough the government and LTTE met in February todiscuss implementation of the ceasefire agreement, afurther meeting scheduled for April did not take place.Further talks in October ended in disagreement overthe government closure of the main highway to theJaffna Peninsula. In March the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial,summary or arbitrary executions, reporting on a 2005visit to Sri Lanka, said that freedoms of expression,movement, association and participation werethreatened, particularly for Tamil and Muslim civilians.
In May, President Mahinda Rajapakse unilaterallyappointed new members of the Human RightsCommission after their predecessors’ terms of officehad expired. The Commission appeared no longer tocomply fully with constitutional and internationalstandards for national human rights institutions.In May Sri Lanka was elected to the UN Human RightsCouncil for a two-year term. In support of its candidacy,the government pledged to form a new Human RightsMinistry and introduce a Human Rights Charter.In May the European Union (EU) listed the LTTE as aterrorist organization, freezing its assets and barring itsofficials from travel to or within the EU.
In response,the LTTE leadership said all EU monitors on the SriLanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) should leave thecountry by September. In September the Supreme Court ruled there was nolegal basis for the UN Human Rights Committee to hearcases from Sri Lanka. The Court held that Sri Lanka’saccession to the First Optional Protocol to theInternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights wasunconstitutional and illegal as it gave the Committeejudicial powers without parliamentary authorization.International human rights bodies raised concernsabout the escalating human rights abuses andviolations of international humanitarian law in SriLanka at the UN Human Rights Council in Septemberand November.
Rising civilian deaths Both the UN Secretary-General and the UN EmergencyRelief Coordinator expressed concern at the risingcivilian casualties in the conflict. The UN estimated thatsome 3,000 civilians had been killed in conflict-relatedviolence since hostilities had worsened in 2006.
TheLTTE targeted army personnel and civilians with suicidebombings, claymore mines and grenade attacks. In April, following a suicide bomb attempt on the lifeof army chief Lieutenant-General Sarath Fonseka inwhich 10 people were killed, a major air and artilleryoffensive was launched on LTTE positions inTrincomalee District, killing at least 12 civilians. After abomb in Trincomalee town left five people dead,including a child, more than 20 Tamil and Muslimcivilians were killed and thousands forcibly displacedin apparent reprisal attacks by members of theSinhalese community.
The LTTE denied accusations that it was behind aclaymore mine attack on a bus in June in which 67civilians were killed in Kebitigollawe, northern Sri Lanka.The SLMM found government forces responsible forthe killing in August of 17 aid workers from the ActionContre La Faim agency in Muttur, TrincomaleeDistrict. A magisterial inquiry had not concluded bythe end of 2006.
Also in August, 51 young people wereestimated killed and 100 injured when the air forcebombed a former children’s home in Mullaitivu,northern Sri Lanka, claiming it to be an LTTE trainingcentre. Three severely injured girls were detainedunder emergency regulations, one of whom remainedin the custody of the Terrorist InvestigationDepartment in Colombo. In October a suicide bombing of a navy convoy 170kmnorth-east of Colombo, killed around 100 navypersonnel, the largest number of people killed in asuicide bombing in recent years.
The army admitted shelling Kathiraveli, BatticaloaDistrict, in November but accused the LTTE of usingcivilians as human shields.
As many as 40 people werekilled and more than 100 wounded when a schoolsheltering displaced people was hit.The internally displaced Over 215,000 people were displaced in the north andeast as a result of renewed fighting, and at least 10,000fled to India.
Tens of thousands of people weredisplaced by a major armed forces offensive in July toseize control of the Mavil Aru waterway in easternTrincomalee District. An estimated half a million people had beendisplaced earlier in the conflict and by the 2004tsunami.
Many of these remained vulnerable toharassment and violence from the LTTE, other armedgroups and members of the Sri Lankan securityforces. Displaced people had few employment opportunitiesand limited health and education services and sufferedthe effects of alcohol abuse and widespread domesticviolence. Most tsunami camps were well-funded and ofa reasonable standard, but those for people displacedby the conflict often lacked electricity, transport andproper sanitation. Concerns remained about thisdisparity of treatment.
Lack of humanitarian access Humanitarian aid agencies were unable to reach manyof those at risk in the north and east. From August, aidsupplies to the north were obstructed by the closure ofthe Jaffna Peninsula road and a sea blockade by theLTTE.
Humanitarian and medical workers werethreatened, harassed and subject to abductions andattacks, and their work further hampered by newregistration requirements.
The UN called on both parties to the conflict to allowhumanitarian agencies free and unimpeded access tothe affected population, and to provide greater securityfor aid workers.
Unlawful killings and impunity The number of unlawful killings dramatically increased.Several hundred extrajudicial killings were reported.They were carried out by forces of the government, theKaruna group, a splinter group of the LTTE reportedlyco-operating with government forces, the LTTE andother armed opposition groups. b In January, five students were shot dead at closerange, allegedly by the government Special Task Forcein Trincomalee town.
The only witness prepared tocome forward – the father of one of the youths –received death threats. b Unidentified gunmen suspected of links with thearmed forces shot and killed VanniasinghamVigneswaran, a Tamil National Alliance politician, inTrincomalee in April. A member of the same party,Nadarajah Raviraj, was shot dead in Colombo inNovember. b In April, eight Sinhalese farmers were hacked todeath by suspected LTTE members in Kalyanapura. b The navy denied responsibility for a spate ofincidents in May.
Details remained unclear but theincidents resulted in casualties and deaths on KaytsIsland off the Jaffna Peninsula, which included thedeaths of 13 Tamil civilians, among them a four-montholdbaby and a four-year-old boy. The area is controlledby the navy.
b In August, unidentified gunmen killed KetheshLoganathan, Deputy Head of the Sri Lanka PeaceSecretariat and long-time critic of the LTTE, which werewidely believed to be behind the killing. Child soldiers At least 50 children a month were recruited as soldiersin the north and east.
According to UNICEF, the UNChildren’s Agency, by mid-2006 there were still 1,545under-age fighters in LTTE forces. In June over 100 children were reportedly recruitedin government-controlled areas in the east by theKaruna group.
In November, a special adviser to the UNSpecial Representative for Children and Armed Conflictreported that government forces had been activelyinvolved in forcibly recruiting children to the group.
Enforced disappearances In July presidential directives were re-issued requiringthe security forces to issue receipts for arrested personsand inform the Human Rights Commission within 48hours. The Commission reported 419 enforceddisappearances in Jaffna for the first half of 2006. A localnon-governmental organization recorded 277abductions from April to September.
Disappearances andabductions were attributed to several forces, includingthe security forces, the LTTE and the Karuna group.
b In January, seven aid workers employed by theTamil Rehabilitation Organization were abducted byunidentified armed men.
b Eight young Tamil men who went missing from aHindu temple in Manthuvil East, Jaffna District, in Maywere feared to have been taken away in army vehiclesseen in the vicinity.
b Father Thiruchchelvan Nihal Jim Brown, a Catholicpriest from Allaipiddy, and Wenceslaus VincesVimalathas went missing after crossing a navycheckpoint in August on Kayts Island. It was feared theyhad been taken into custody by navy personnel.
On 4 September President Rajapakse said aninternational commission of inquiry would investigateabductions, disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
On 6 November, however, the government announcedthe establishment of a national commission with aninternational observer group.
Torture There were numerous reports of torture in policecustody. According to the non-governmental AsianCommission for Human Rights, two people died incustody in 2006.
Death penalty A number of high profile murder cases fuelled demandsfor an end to the moratorium on executions.
Accordingto the Director General of Prisons, at least 12 deathsentences were passed. Approximately 167 peopleremained on death row. No executions were reported.
. Thanks to http://thereport.amnesty.org.
