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Humanitarian aid agencies and nongovernmental organizations, domestic and international, are finding it increasingly difficult to service populations in need, and have sometimes come under direct attack. According to the United Nations, 24 aid workers died in Sri Lanka in 2006, including 17 local staff of the Paris-based Action Contre Le Faim who were murdered in August. The Sri Lankan authorities have not arrested anyone for that crime. 5 Abductions and “disappearances” The number of abductions and enforced disappearances is spiraling. The national Human Rights Commission (HRC) said it recorded roughly 1,000 cases in 2006, plus nearly 100 more in the first two months of 2007. 6 A government commission established in September 2006 to investigate “disappearances” said in June 2007 that 2,020 people were abducted or “disappeared” between September 14, 2006, and February 25, 2007. Approximately 1,134 of these people were found alive but the others remain missing. 7 On the Jaffna peninsula alone, an area under strict military control, more than 800 persons were reported missing between December 2005 and April 2007. According to a credible non-governmental organization that tracks “disappearances,” 564 of these persons were still missing as of May 1. While the LTTE has long been responsible for abductions, the majority of recent “disappearances” in Jaffna and the rest of the country implicate government forces or armed groups acting with governmental complicity. While many of the “disappeared” likely have been killed, some may be in detention, held under the newly imposed Emergency Regulations (see below). If so, the government should announce the names of such persons, as well as any charges 5 Security Council Briefing by Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes, June 22, 2007, http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/SHES-74ESMZ?OpenDocument (accessed June 25, 2007). 6 Simon Gardner, “Abductions, Disappearances Haunt Sri Lanka’s Civil War,” Reuters, March 5, 2007, and “Sri Lanka Police, Soldiers Arrested over Abductions,” Reuters, March 6, 2007. 7 “US Concerned about Disappeared,” BBC Sinhala.com, June 28, 2007, http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2007/06/070629_uscondemn.shtml (accessed July 2, 2007). 7 Human Rights Watch August 2007
against them, and list the locations where they are being held. Those not charged should be released. Human Rights Watch conducted interviews with the family members of 109 people who said their relative had been abducted or “disappeared” since 2006. These included cases from Jaffna, Colombo, Vavuniya, Mannar, Trincomalee, and Batticaloa. The cases can largely be grouped into two basic types: those by the state in the name of counterinsurgency, and those by allied armed groups or the LTTE to eliminate rivals, recruit fighters, or extort funds. In the lawlessness that has grown in the past two years, criminal elements also appear to have committed some of the abductions. Over the course of late 2006 and 2007 scores of abductions were accompanied by huge ransom demands and the victims were mostly businessmen from the minority Tamil community. By May-June 2007, members of the Muslim community, particularly in the eastern district of Ampara, were targeted as well. Under growing pressure from within Sri Lanka and abroad, the government has taken some steps to address abductions and enforced disappearances, including some arrests of alleged perpetrators, but none of these steps has significantly slowed the abuse. A one-man government commission on “disappearances” established in September 2006 has issued strong statements about the abuse and the government’s inability to halt it, but the government has not made public any of the commission’s interim reports, nor is it obliged to implement any of the recommendations. Public statements by the government have rejected the overwhelming evidence of government involvement as “unfounded” and cast those who accuse government forces as sympathizers of the LTTE. President Rajapaksa, once an advocate for the “disappeared,” has dismissed many of the cases as fakes. “Many of those people who are said to have been abducted are in England, Germany, gone abroad,” he said Return to War 8
Page 1 and 2: Sri Lanka Return to War Human Right
Page 3 and 4: Karuna group ......................
Page 5 and 6: I. Summary What I am saying is, if
Page 7 and 8: extrajudicial killings to unlawful
Page 9: 2002. Since January 2006 more than
Page 13 and 14: Emergency Regulations (372 Tamils,
Page 15 and 16: The mother of an abducted boy from
Page 17 and 18: disappearances. The police released
Page 19 and 20: commission, highlighting examples o
Page 21 and 22: Methodology This report is based pr
Page 23 and 24: discriminating against Tamils in th
Page 25 and 26: intimidation to force civilians who
Page 27 and 28: International humanitarian law proh
Page 29 and 30: in which an LTTE cadre shot and kil
Page 31 and 32: the Savukady camp in Batticaloa to
Page 33 and 34: they would no longer be responsible
Page 35 and 36: In mid-May the government began a n
Page 37 and 38: On May 29, UNHCR commented on the g
Page 39 and 40: Grama Niladari Divisions (the small
Page 41 and 42: The salvos landed in and around the
Page 43 and 44: didn’t take him to the hospital b
Page 45 and 46: While describing the loss of civili
Page 47 and 48: saw no weapons, no bunkers or artil
Page 49 and 50: V. Enforced Disappearances and Abdu
Page 51 and 52: months of 2007. 84 A government com
Page 53 and 54: In one illustrative case documented
Page 55 and 56: The Valvettiturai police registered
Page 57 and 58: would send him by bus or train to T
Page 59 and 60: wife tried his cell phone several t
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then that his brother had paid, alt
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as the disseminators of “LTTE pro
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It is evident that many of the [dis
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The government’s lack of commitme
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A lodge-owner who had 29 out of 36
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arguing that evicting Tamils from C
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VII. Emergency Regulations In Augus
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Given the wide ranging powers provi
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Large-scale arrests of Tamil youth
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held, how many had been charged wit
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Various United Nations principles i
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In addition, the regulations establ
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individuals and groups working to r
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At a public meeting on April 6, 200
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On April 30, 2007, unidentified gun
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“We have blocked it as per a gove
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conference said they had already ca
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astards with the law we need to use
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humanitarian worker with direct kno
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The government dismissed the allega
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With the change of administration i
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IX. Karuna Group and State Complici
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stating that it “has no complicit
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of the government commission lookin
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Over the past 18 months, the govern
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Lack of witness protection A key pr
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president cannot appoint any commis
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Watch asked the Sri Lankan governme
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persons and refugees, and SLMM in r
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7. Death of 51 persons in Naddalamo
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Members of the IIGEP have also expr
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In the current context, in particul
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domestic and international criticis
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To the Liberation Tigers of Tamil E
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• Urge the Sri Lankan government
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H UMAN R I GHTS WATCH 350 Fifth Ave
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