(Section on Sri Lanka in HRE 2013 world Report)
The Sri Lankan government in 2012 continued its assault on
democratic space and failed to take any meaningful steps towards providing
accountability for war crimes committed by either side during the internal
armed conflict that ended in 2009.
The government targeted civil society through threats,
surveillance, and clampdowns on activities and free speech. Statements by
government officials and government-controlled media named and threatened human
rights defenders who called for accountability for wartime abuses or criticized
other government policies. Local activists expressed deep concern about the
security of their staffand the people they assist.
Overly broad detention powers remained in place under
various laws and regulations. Several thousand people continued to be detained
without charge or trial. State security forces committed arbitrary arrests and
torture against ethnic minority Tamils, including repatriated Sri Lankan
nationals allegedly linked to the defeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE). The Tamil population in the north benefitted from humanitarian groups
having greater access to the area,but the government did not take adequate
steps to normalize their living conditions.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brothers continued to
accumulate power at the expense of democratic institutions. Calls to restore
the independence of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and other
government commissions that Rajapaksa marginalized via the Eighteenth Amendment
to the constitution, which passed in 2010, went unheeded.
Accountability
Sri Lanka made no progress in 2012 toward ensuring justice
for the victims of numerous violations of human rights and the laws of war
committed by both sides during the 26-year-long conflict between the government
and the LTTE.These violations include the government’s indiscriminate shelling
of civilians and the LTTE’s use of civilians as “human shields” in the final
months of the conflict, which ended in May 2009.
The government continued to ignore the 2011 report of the
panel of experts appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,
which recommended establishing an independent international mechanism to
monitor the government’s implementation of the panel recommendations, conduct
an independent investigation, and collect and safeguard evidence.
In March 2012, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) adopted a
resolution finding that the government’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation
Commission (LLRC) did not adequately address serious allegations of violations
of international law, and called on Sri Lanka to take all necessary steps to
ensure justice and accountability. It requested that the government
expeditiously present a comprehensive plan detailing the steps it had taken to
implement the LLRC’s recommendations and to address accountability.
The Sri Lankan government responded by publicly threatening
human rights defenders who had advocated for the resolution. In July, the
government announced that it had adopted an action plan to implement LLRC
recommendations. The plan vaguely calls for the government to look into
civilian deaths and prosecute any wrongdoers. It sets out a 12-month timeframe
to conclude disciplinary inquiries and 24 months for prosecutions. But the
government proposal merely leaves responsibility for investigations with the
military and police, the entities responsible for the abuses, using processes
lacking in transparency.
There has been no information regarding actions of the
special army courts of inquiry, supposedly established in 2012 to look into
allegations of war crimes.
Despite strong evidence that government forces were involved
in the execution style slayings of 17 aid workers and 5 students in separate
incidents in 2006, no one was arrested for the crimes. Other recommendations,
such as the need to restore the independence of the police and remove them from
the purview of the Ministry of Defence, were tasked to parliamentary select
committees that had yet to be established at this writing.
Arbitrary Detention, Torture, and Enforced Disappearances
The police and security forces continue to enjoy overly
broad detention powers.
The president issued monthly decrees granting the armed
forces search and detention powers, effectively granting police powers to the
army.Despite the end of the formal state of emergency in 2011, the government
continued to hold without trial several thousand people initially detained
under the emergency regulations. In spite of public commitments, the government
also failed to publish comprehensive lists of the names of the detained, as
well as places of detentions.
The government released most of the more than 11,000
suspected LTTE members detained at the end of the war and announced plans to
prosecute 180 of those still detained.
Local rights groups reported arbitrary arrests, new enforced
disappearances, abductions, and killings in the north and the east in 2012. The
government lifted its restrictions on travel to the north, although it
maintained a high security presence. Tamils with alleged links to the LTTE were
increasingly at risk of arbitrary arrests and torture. In April, nearly 220
Tamil men and women in the Trincomalee area were arrested and held for several days
without charge in military detention camps.
Tamils who returned to Sri Lanka, including deported asylum
seekers, reported being detained and accused of having links to the LTTE or
taking part in antigovernment activities abroad. A number reported being
tortured by the Central Intelligence Department and other security forces. On
the basis of these reports, courts in the United Kingdom granted injunctions to
stop the deportation ofmore than 30 Tamil asylum seekers.
The Prevention of Terrorism Act remained in place, giving
police broad powers over suspects in custody.
The Prevention of Terrorism Act remained in place, giving
police broad powers over suspects in custody In September, elections for local
provincial councils in the east were marred by allegations of violence and
vote-rigging.
Attacks on Civil Society
Free expression remained under assault in 2012. Government
officials and state-owned media publicly threatened civil society and human
rights activists who spoke in favor of March’s HRC resolution. Their names and
faces were publicized and they were branded as traitors. The government took no
action against a cabinet minister, Mervyn de Silva, who threatened activists.
Media reported increased surveillance and clampdowns on free
speech. In June 2012, the Criminal
Investigation Department raided the offices of the Sri Lanka irror, a news
website, and the Sri Lanka X News website of the opposition United National
Party. The authorities confiscated computers and documents and arrested nine people
on the grounds that the websites were “propagating false and unethical news on
Sri Lanka.” They were charged under article 120 of the penal code, which
imposes up to two years in prison for those who “excite or attempt to excite
feelings of disaffection to the president or to the government.” The nine were
released on bail the day after their arrest.
The government shut down at least five news websites
critical of the government in 2012 and put in place onerous registration
requirements and fees for all web-based
media services. Many news websites moved their host proxies abroad to avoid the
censorship. Frederica Jansz, then-editor of the anti-government Sunday Leader
newspaper, reported that Gotabhaya Rajapaksa threatened her in July, when she
criticized his decision to reroute a government plane in order to pick up a
puppy from Switzerland. The paper retracted the story in November. There were
reports of other independent or outspoken members of the media being pushed out
of their positions due to political pressure.
Unknown assailants gunned down the previous Sunday Leader
editor, Lasantha Wickrematunge, in broad daylight near a police station in
2009. No investigation has been conducted into his death.
There were no further developments in the case of Prageeth
Ekneligoda, a contributor to Lanka E-news, who disappeared on January 24, 2010.
Attorney General Mohan Peiris, summoned to testify in Colombo, retracted a
previous statement where he had claimed that Ekneligoda had not disappeared but
had willingly moved abroad.
In September, elections for local provincial councils in the
east were marred by allegations of violence and vote-rigging.
Internally Displaced Persons and Militarization
The last of the nearly 300,000 civilians illegally confined
in military-controlled detention centers after the war—including Menik Farm
near Vavuniya, which was closed in September 2012—moved back into communities,
although not necessarily to their home areas. Tens of thousands of persons
still live with host families or in temporary accommodation, and several
thousand are not able to return home because their home areas have not been
de-mined.
Although the government claimed to have considerably
decreased its military presence in the north and east, credible accounts indicate
that military personnel still frequently intervene in civilian life. A Defence
Ministry video on the north and east showed the military involved in numerous
civilian activities, including organizing school cricket competitions and
celebrations in temples.
Soldiers commit abuses against soldiers with impunity.
Fishermen and farmers complained about the armed forces continuing to encroach
into their coastal areas and onto their land, impacting their livelihoods.
Key International Actors
Sri Lanka’s government faced mounting pressure from key
international actors after it failed to take meaningful action on
accountability issues. At the March HRC session, the government tried to block
the council from adopting a resolution focusing on accountability. The
resolution, which passed with 24 votes in favor, 15 against, and 8 abstentions,
effectively overturned a May 2009 council resolution that ignored serious human
rights concerns during the Sri Lankan war. Member countries voting for the
resolution included Nigeria, Uruguay, and India, which faces pressure from
Tamil Nadu state and civil society activists demanding accountability. The
resolution calls on the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
(OHCHR) to report back in March 2013.
India continued to press the Sri Lankan government to
address allegations of human rights violations, implement the LLRC
recommendations, and initiate a reconciliation process with the Tamil
minority.
China has emerged in recent years as an important ally of
Sri Lanka’s government. In addition to investing heavily in developing Sri
Lankan infrastructure, China had several high-level diplomatic and military
missions to the country during the year and vocally opposed the HRC resolution
on Sri Lanka