Friday, March 07, 2014

Reign of terror continues in Northern Sri Lanka...

Five years after the civil war ended in Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan security forces are still committing crimes against humanity - including rape, sexual violence, torture, murder, imprisonment, enforced disappearance and land grabs - against Tamil civilians in the island's Northern Province, according to a report released today by the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice, a London-based group with a track record of accurate reporting and analysis of Sri Lankan affairs (of which I am chair).

Until now, international debate about Sri Lanka has focused mainly on what happened during the last months of the war in 2009, when thousands of civilians perished as government forces crushed the last pocket of Tamil Tiger resistance along the northeastern coast. But this new report is the first to claim that the government's actions after the war, and through to the present day, include crimes of comparable gravity.

And these findings come at a crucial moment, just when the UN's Human Rights Council is debating what to do about Sri Lanka's failure to comply with its last year's resolution calling for an "independent and credible investigation". They may increase the chance that the Council will decide to set up such an investigation internationally, as advised by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay. UK Prime Minister David Cameron also promised to push for an international inquiry during his visit to Sri Lanka last November.

This report makes the legal case for an investigation into post-war violations, using the framework of international criminal law. It puts together a composite picture, highlighting the scale and gravity of the crimes, from previously published reports of specific actions, which it assesses as credible on the basis of corroboration by survivors, attorneys, journalists, and human rights campaigners in 26 interviews. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Sri Lanka security forces 'raping and torturing' ahead of Commonwealth...
  2. Scandal of Sri Lanka’s disappeared...
  3. Leading Sri Lanka into the abyss...
  4. Thousands protest against government in Sri Lanka...
  5. Mass grave fuels fear of thousands buried in Sri Lanka war zone...
  6. Scars of Sri Lanka...
  7. Sri Lanka’s crumbling democracy...

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