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Sri
Lankan leaders must address the persistent climate of fear in the
country, Amnesty International said as the UN human rights chief Navi
Pillay concluded her visit to the island.
Navi
Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, made her first
official visit to Sri Lanka from 25-31 August. It comes just before the
UN and Commonwealth review the country’s human rights situation in
September.
At her concluding press conference
today, Pillay stressed that many who met or wanted to meet her during
the visit had been threatened by security forces, and that critical
voices in Sri Lanka are “quite often attacked or even permanently
silenced”.
“Navi Pillay’s take on the human rights situation during her visit very much echoes our own findings.
Being critical of government policy in Sri Lanka is highly risky, and
the extent to which people are being harassed into silence is shocking”,
said Polly Truscott Amnesty International’s Deputy Asia Pacific
Director.
“We’re
glad that Navi Pillay got a chance to meet some victims and families of
the disappeared. But the reprisals against those she met, doesn’t bode
well for the Commonwealth Summit set for November in Colombo. The
government must stop its attacks on Sri Lankan society”.
“The
Sri Lankan conflict may have ended in 2009, but the level of human
rights violations in the country remains critically high. The Sri Lankan
government still shows no real will to account for past crimes,
combined with new attacks on those calling for accountability.”
Pillay today insisted that “unless
there is a credible national process, calls for an international
inquiry are likely to continue” into the events of the armed conflict
“There
is still every need for the UN to set up an independent international
investigation into crimes under international law in Sri Lanka, as
Pillay has called for in the past.”
“The UN and Commonwealth must respond effectively to these latest concerns raised by Pillay” said Truscott