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  INDICTMENT AGAINST SRI LANKA
The Charge is Ethnic Cleansing
AMNESTY LAUNCHES SRI LANKA CAMPAIGN
- 19 SEPTEMBER TO 31 DECEMBER 1990
  Amnesty launched an international
campaign against Sri Lanka on 19 September 1990. The
campaign continued till end December. The aims of the
campaign were
1. To publicise the poor human rights record of Sri
Lanka
2. To put pressure on the Sri Lankan authorities to
make a full and genuine commitment to human rights
3. To put pressure on the Indian authorities to make
a full investigation of the human rights violations committed by
members of the Indian Peace Keeping Forces and to
bring those responsible to justice.
In the United Kingdom, the objectives of the campaign
were extended to include the concerns that the British
Section of Amnesty had over the treatment of Tamil
refugees by the UK government.
The Amnesty International Sri Lanka Briefing published
in September 1990 declared:
"Gross and widespread human rights violations in Sri
Lanka have persisted for more than seven years against
a background of armed opposition to the government.
"Disappearances" and extra judicial executions in
particular have been reported with increased frequency
since mid-1983. For four years these abuses
were concentrated in the northeast of the island, where
since the late 1970s Tamil militants have been engaged
in an armed struggle to establish a
separate state..
"In the face of armed opposition from Tamil
secessionists in the late 1970s, the Sri Lanka
Government gave extraordinary powers to the security
forces. Grave human rights violations have resulted and
the Sri Lanka security forces increasingly appear to
believe they can commit abuses with impunity...
"In the northeast, the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) -
which was deployed in Sri Lanka in July 1987 and had
completed a phased withdrawal by the end of March 1990
- was reported to have committed extra judicial
executions and to have been responsible for
"disappearances". There were also numerous allegations
of torture of prisoners by members of the IPKF...."
(Sri Lanka Briefing - ISBN 0 86210 185 9, AI Index
37/20/90)
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