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"To us
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Sri Lanka's Genocidal War - '95 to '01Human Rights Watch reports on murder, abduction,
extortion, assault, illegal detention, torture & forced labour in Sri Lanka
The US based
Human Rights Watch in its report (published in January 1999) for the year
1998, pointed out that little progress was made in 1998 towards a political
settlement of the governments fifteen-year conflict with the Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and declared:
".... After attacks in June (1998) when at least twenty were reported killed and
fifty injured, hundreds of demonstrators petitioned government authorities in
the Vanni to protect civilian lives. Shortages of food and essential supplies
were reported in conflict areas. Hundreds of thousands remained internally
displaced mid-year; hundreds sought safety in India, others died in the attempt.
Hundreds of deaths and injuries of civilians were also reported during army
operations in the east, which received much less international attention. As in
the north, both security personnel stationed there and ex-militant paramilitary
forces working alongside them were accused of extrajudicial killings, torture,
and illegal and arbitrary detentions of persons suspected of LTTE links. In one
of the few cases where official action was taken, on February 1 in
Thambalagamam, Trincomalee district, officers from the Bharathipuram police post
and local home guards reportedly arrested and killed eight young men in
retaliation for an attack by the LTTE on police in the area the night before.
Police arrested forty-two, thirty-nine of whom had been released on bail by
mid-June.
Tamil politicians and human rights organisations protested the security forces
continued use of homeguards and armed ex-militant Tamil groups to aid in
security operations, as spotters to identify suspected LTTE members, and to
detain and interrogate suspects. They have been accused of murder,
abduction, extortion, assault, illegal detention, torture, and forced
conscription.
Large-scale arbitrary arrests of Tamils based almost solely on their ethnicity
continued in many parts of the country, particularly after major attacks
attributed to the LTTE. In the north and east, residents complained of beatings,
torture, and public humiliation of persons detained during searches, and of
arrested youths being used for forced labour....
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