Return to War - Human Rights Watch
Return to War - Human Rights Watch
Return to War - Human Rights Watch
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in May 2007. “They have made complaints that they were abducted, but when they<br />
return they don’t say.” 8<br />
Arbitrary arrests and detention<br />
In August 2005, after the assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar,<br />
the government of then-President Chandrika Kumaratunga imposed Emergency<br />
Regulations drawn from the Emergency Regulations of 2000. Long a controversial<br />
measure in Sri Lanka, the regulations granted the security forces sweeping powers of<br />
arrest and detention, allowing the authorities <strong>to</strong> hold a person without charge based<br />
on vaguely defined accusations for up <strong>to</strong> 12 months.<br />
Over the past 18 months, the Rajapaksa government has detained an undetermined<br />
number of people reaching in<strong>to</strong> the hundreds under the regulations. The primary<br />
targets are young Tamil men suspected of being LTTE members or supporters, but the<br />
government has recently cast a wider net, arresting non-Tamils for allegedly<br />
supporting the LTTE.<br />
The overbroad and vaguely worded regulations allow for the detention of any person<br />
“acting in any manner prejudicial <strong>to</strong> the national security or <strong>to</strong> the maintenance of<br />
public order, or <strong>to</strong> the maintenance of essential services.” The authorities may<br />
search, detain for the purpose of a search, and arrest without a warrant any person<br />
suspected of an offense under the regulations.<br />
The regulations also provide for house arrest, restrictions on the internal movement<br />
of certain persons or groups, prohibitions on an individual from leaving the country,<br />
and limitations on an individual’s business or employment. They allow for the<br />
censorship of articles related broadly <strong>to</strong> “sensitive” issues, and the disruption and<br />
banning of public meetings.<br />
The number of people arrested under the Emergency Regulations remains unclear. In<br />
March 2007 the government announced it was holding 452 persons under the<br />
8 Teymoor Nabili, “Peace Through <strong>War</strong> in Sri Lanka,” Al Jazeera, May 31, 2007,<br />
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/654B1090-36E2-4374-AFC9-7EDCE9ACB4C7.htm (accessed May 31, 2007).<br />
9<br />
<strong>Human</strong> <strong>Rights</strong> <strong>Watch</strong> August 2007