- Involuntary Disappearances in Sri Lanka Looming Large
Again - International Federation of Tamils
1 January 2006 also
in PDF
"...More than 920 Tamils have been
arrested and detained in Colombo alone in one overnight
search. Sri Lanka armed forces are descending on Tamil homes
in the middle of the night, privacy of the Tamil bedrooms is
trespassed, men and women, young and old, in their
night-clothes are bundled up in awaiting vehicles and taken
away for interrogation and detention. Although the
government tells the international media that many are being
released after an identity check-up, they are being arrested
over and over again, and subjected to an ordeal of being
fingerprinted, photographed, and videoed..."
International Federation of Tamils
18 Rue des Paquis,1201 Geneva, Switzerland [email protected]
Urgent Press statement
Ref.Pr/S/010106
01.01.2006
Involuntary Disappearances in Sri Lanka Looming Large Again
The International Federation of Tamils (IFT) urgently appeals to the
International Community (IC) to take immediate action to prevail on
the President of Sri Lanka and his Armed Forces to stop its
witch-hunt of the unarmed civilian Tamils in Sri Lanka. More
than 920 Tamils have been arrested and detained in Colombo alone in
an overnight search. Sri Lanka armed forces are descending on Tamil
homes in the middle of the night, privacy of the Tamil bedrooms is
trespassed, men and women, young and old, in their night-clothes are
bundled up in awaiting vehicles and taken away for interrogation and
detention. Although the government tells the international media
that many are being released after an identity check-up, they are
being arrested over and over again, and subjected to an ordeal of
being fingerprinted, photographed, and videoed.
In the north-east, there is an alarming rate of increase on the
"Missing List" of persons arrested by the Sri Lanka armed forces.
Relatives are not given the details of whereabouts of those
arrested. Many have been killed and bodies thrown in isolated
places. Before the relatives remove such bodies from the mortuaries,
they are being forced to sign papers admitting those killed belonged
to the LTTE. Sri Lanka troops patrolling in army vehicles shoot at
random, killing and wounding innocent Tamil civilians in the
north-east. Check points have multiplied. All passengers, young
and old, including patients to hospital are forced to alight from
vehicles for a thorough body search by Sinhalese soldiers and
policemen who do not speak Tamil, the language of the north-east.
A rule of terror on Tamils has been unleashed by President
Mahinda Rajapakse who has come to power with the unflinching support
of extreme nationalists and Buddhist chauvinists. IFT appeals to the
IC to act immediately and prevent further state sponsored murder,
torture and incarcerations.
Notes
1. Over 920 Tamil men and women living in Colombo were
arrested by Sri Lankan army and police on New Years Eve 2005.
Witnesses report that persons who protested against being
arrested were beaten up by soldiers. ?Operation Strangers in the
Night 3? between midnight on Friday and noon on Saturday the
31st is the largest single ethnic detention carried out in
Colombo this year. Tamils were bused through the night to eight
separate detention centres. The house to house round up was
implemented by over three thousand Sri Lankan Army and police in
areas of Colombo that are known to have large Tamil residential
populations namely Welawatte, Bambalapitiya, Maradana, Kotahena,
Grandpass and Mutuwal. This follows smaller rounding up
operations of about 100 Tamil people last week. An estimated
several tens of thousands Tamil people live in Colombo, many of
them refugees from the Jaffna peninsula following the army
occupation of the peninsula in 1995. All Tamils living in
Colombo are required to carry identity passes. Police sources
confirmed that the persons who did not have valid identity
documents in their possession during their arrest will be
detained for further interrogation. Of the 920 detainees on the
31st 2005, at least 105 are women 2. In a separate development,
the NHRC (National Human Rights Commission) has confirmed that
25 Tamil persons have disappeared in the army-controlled Tamil
region of Jaffna last month. Whereas relatives state these
persons had been taken by the Sri Lankan army for questioning,
the army denies all knowledge of their whereabouts.
2. Before the cease fire in 2002 Sri Lanka had one of the
highst rates of disappearances in government custody in the
world.Disappearances reached a peak in 1996 within one year of
the army regaining control of Jaffna. A report by Amnesty
International on disappearances in 1995 to 1996 when government
forces regained control of Jaffna stated :
"That more than 600 'disappearances' can occur in one
year despite the government's claim that it is addressing
the problem is outrageous. This highlights the need for
action to be taken now -- to prevent these violations from
continuing."
3. In some instances, persons held in prison without being
charged have been murdered in prison by guards and/or ethnic
Sinhala mobs with impunity. The most notable case is the
Bindunewewa Prison Massacre where racially motivated mobs killed
ethnic Tamil prisoners held under the PTA. Many of the prisoners
killed were under eighteen (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3834205.stm
). No one has yet been successfully prosecuted. Although
prison officials who stood by and in some instances participated
in the massacre were initially found guilty of murder, the
supreme court freed them on appeal. Other cases include the
Welikade prison massacre. A 2002 Amnesty International report on
rape in police custody may be found at
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engasa370012002 . This
should be read in conjunction with Sri Lanka: Torture in custody
(AI Index: ASA 37/10/99) AI states the government has not
formulated a policy to deal with this. There has been no
successful prosecution in this area.
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