Recently in Sri Lanka Category
Sun Aug 3, 2008 11:52am EDT
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka must act to prevent human rights abuses including abductions, the intimidation of media personnel and the recruitment of child soldiers as it fights a 25-year civil war against Tamil Tiger rebels, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said on Sunday.
"We have been concerned about the continuing reports of abductions, disappearances, the detention of some people and reports of intimidation against the media," Boucher said.
Facts Under Ground: A fact-finding mission on nameless graves & mass graves in Uri area
Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP)
http://www.ikvpaxchristi.nl/files/Documenten/Kasjmir/facts-under-ground-kashmir.pdf
Recurring Nightmare
State Responsibility for “Disappearances” and Abductions in Sri Lanka
Human Rights Watch
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2008/srilanka0308/
Liban: Disparitions forcees et detentions au secret
Centre Libanais des Droits Humains
http://www.ediec.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Libanon/CLDH_DF_2008__1_.pdf
Report of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
UN Working Group on Enforced Involuntary Disappearances
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/7session/A-HRC-7-2.doc
The government-backed Karuna Faction militia is using abduction as a fundraising tool at home and abroad. Dan McDougall reports
Sunday, 6 April 2008
For some refugees, finding asylum in Britain is not the end of the nightmare, but the beginning. And no one knows this better than Tamils such as Ariyathas Pushpathas.
Government Offensive Against Tamil Rebels Also Claims Civilian Victims
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, April 1, 2008; A10
MAHA OYA, Sri Lanka -- Under thick tropical rains on a rutted country road, a bus packed with ethnic Tamil families screeched to a stop here in eastern Sri Lanka. At a heavily fortified government checkpoint, the families were ordered off the bus.
Malaysia Sun
Wednesday 19th March, 2008
(IANS)
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Wednesday slammed the Sri Lankan foreign ministry for 'misrepresenting' its report on forced disappearances and making public some information it had shared with it confidentially.
By Ruan Pethiyagoda
The British Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has indicated that it is considering prosecuting former TMVP head and LTTE renegade Eastern Commander Karuna Amman for war crimes and human rights abuses on the basis of evidence forwarded to them by the Metropolitan Police, including reports forwarded by leading human rights organisations.
Rights groups have reported hundreds of abductions and disappearances in recent months after the military and separatist Tamil Tigers resumed a two-decade civil war, which has cost nearly 70,000 lives since 1983.
Police found the decomposing bodies in a grave in the north central district of Anuradhapura after a report by a local resident, a military spokesman said.
by Jim McDonald
You could be taken at any time, day or night - at home, at work, while walking on the street.
Your captors, in uniform or civilian clothes, could forcibly take you away, providing no reason or legal warrant. When relatives ask about your whereabouts, the same officials deny having arrested you or knowing your fate. You are now a victim of enforced disappearance.
This happened to Sivasubramanium Raveendranath, Vice-Chancellor of Eastern University in Sri Lanka. He "disappeared" while at a science conference Dec. 15, 2006, and has not been heard from since.
A few months before Raveendranath's "disappearance," the kidnappers demanded his immediate resignation in exchange for the release of his colleague, Dr. Bala Sugamar. Raveendranath resigned, and Sugamar was released. The university, however, wouldn't accept his resignation.
Working from the major Sri Lankan city of Colombo - because it wasn't safe enough at the university - he received several threats before his "disappearance," although it is still not clear from whom.
More
UP-123-2007: SRI LANKA: Further list of victims of extrajudicial killings, disappearance
SRI LANKA: Extrajudicial killing; disappearance; collapse of rule of
law
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Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) deeply regrets to inform you of the continuing occurrence of extrajudicial killings and disappearance in the northern part of Sri Lanka. In August 2007, fifty persons were either found dead or killed; while 38 others have been forcibly disappeared following arrests or abductions. Some of the perpetrators of these cases are allegedly members of security forces and intelligence units.
