SRI LANKA

Thousands of people were arrested, including scores of possible prisoners of conscience. Torture and ill-treatment were widespread and four prisoners were reported to have died as a result. At least 14 people reportedly "disappeared". There were several reports of extrajudicial executions. An armed opposition group was responsible for grave human rights abuses.

Armed conflict continued between the armed opposition Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the government of President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. Thousands of combatants died in heavy fighting in the "Vanni", an area largely under LTTE control.

The state of emergency, which had been in force in parts of the country (see Amnesty International Report 1998), was extended to the whole country in August. In February emergency regulations (ERS) banning the LTTE were promulgated. Emergency powers were also used to impose censorship in June and postpone provincial council elections in August. The censorship remained in force at the end of the year.

In May the UN Committee against Torture examined Sri Lanka's initial report. The government delegation acknowledged that torture was a problem. The Committee recommended firmer action to bring perpetrators to justice and that Sri Lanka's Convention against Torture Act 1994, ERS and Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) be reviewed to ensure compliance with the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict visited Sri Lanka and held talks with government officials and LTTE leaders in May. According to UN press releases, the LTTE undertook to stop immediately the recruitment of children under the age of 17 and their deployment in combat under the age of 18.

The final and interim reports of three presidential commissions of inquiry established in 1994 to investigate past human rights violations, particularly "disappearances" (see Amnesty International Reports 1995 to 1998), were made public in January. A new commission was set up in May to look into complaints which the three commissions had not been able to investigate before their term ended. The Board of Investigation which inquired into more than 700 "disappearances" that had been reported in Jaffna between 1995 and 1997 submitted its report to the President in April. It reportedly found that 16 of the 765 reported "disappeared" were killed and recommended further investigations with a view to prosecution in 25 cases. It also reportedly traced 201 of the 765 people reported as "disappeared".

A Committee to Inquire into Undue Arrest and Harassment, comprising five ministers and three members of parliament, was appointed in July. It received 154 complaints, including 10 which related to non-implementation of presidential directives and 47 which related to torture or ill-treatment (see Amnesty International Reports 1996 to 1998).

There were several incidents of harassment of and threats to journalists. On 12 February air force personnel attempted to abduct Iqbal Athas, a military reporter, from his home and threatened his family. In the same month, Pradeep Dharmaratne, a provincial reporter who had exposed trade in illicit liquor, was taken in for questioning by police and reportedly tortured. In June the home of Lasantha Wickrematunge, editor of the Sunday Leader, was fired on. He also reportedly received anonymous telephone threats warning him against criticizing the government.

Thousands of Tamil people, including scores of possible prisoners of conscience, were arrested in the north and east of the country and in the capital, Colombo. Safeguards for the welfare of detainees were not fully implemented in many cases. Unauthorized places of detention were used, including by Tamil armed groups cooperating with the security forces. In Vavuniya, evidence emerged of three unofficial detention places run by the People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam after a prisoner escaped.

Torture and ill-treatment were widespread. Reported methods of torture included being hung upside down by the ankles or being hung by the thumbs, beatings with cricket bats, whipping with chains, near-suffocation with plastic bags filled with petrol and chillies, and rape of female detainees. Thambirajah Kamalathasan, a Tamil man from Chunnakam, Jaffna, was reportedly tortured for several days following his arrest by police from Pettah police station, Colombo, on 15 July. He alleged that chilli powder was rubbed into his eyes and that his genitals were squeezed. Two witnesses said they saw him being assaulted with a rod. Thambirajah Kamalathasan was one of 192 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers who had been returned to Sri Lanka from Senegal in February. On return, they were all arrested and detained for several weeks.

The Supreme Court awarded compensation to Kumaru Selvaratnam who had been tortured in Colombo in 1997 (see Amnesty International Report 1998) and whose testicles had to be removed as a result.

Four prisoners were reported to have died in custody as a result of torture. Among them was 18-year-old Sathasivam Sanjeevan, who was arrested by police in Amparai district in October. Although an initial post-mortem failed to identify signs of torture and confirmed the police version that he had been killed by being shot, a second post-mortem, carried out after the body was exhumed, confirmed that the body showed signs of "injuries by blunt weapon" inflicted before the shooting. A magisterial inquiry continued at the end of the year.

At least 14 Tamil civilians reportedly "disappeared" after arrest by the army or armed Tamil groups working alongside it. In Vavuniya, Kathirgamathamby Sentilkumar remained unaccounted for after he was seen being taken into custody on 23 January from Poonthoddam camp for internally displaced people by a group of armed men, three of whom reportedly wore army uniform.

There were several reports of alleged extrajudicial executions. On 1 February, eight Tamil civilians were deliberately shot at close range by police and home guards in Tampalakamam, Trincomalee district. Among them were six people attending a party in a house near the police post. Around 20 police and home guards who appeared drunk reportedly took the victims, including two brothers aged 13 and 17, inside the police post and shot them in the compound. Corroboration of other reports of alleged extrajudicial executions was often difficult to obtain, partly because of pressure exerted by the security forces on relatives and witnesses. In several instances, the latter were forced to sign statements saying that those killed were members of the LTTE or had been killed by the LTTE.

Further evidence emerged about approximately 600 "disappearances" reported in Jaffna in 1996. In a landmark judgment, five members of the security forces were found guilty by the Colombo High Court of the abduction, rape and murder of Krishanthy Kumarasamy and the abduction and murder of her mother, brother and a neighbour in September 1996 (see Amnesty International Report 1997). They were sentenced to death. Two of the convicted soldiers told the court that there were 300 to 400 bodies at Chemmani, where the bodies of Krishanthy Kumarasamy and the others had been discovered. Statements about the alleged mass graves at Chemmani were taken from the five convicted men by the Criminal Investigation Department and the Human Rights Commission. The latter requested assistance of forensic experts from the un. However, by the end of the year, exhumations had not yet commenced.

Investigations into other past human rights violations, including cases recommended for further investigation by the three presidential commissions of inquiry (see above), continued. According to the Attorney General's department, investigations into 485 of the 3,861 such cases had been completed by mid-October and 150 alleged perpetrators had been charged in the High Court.

The trial of a school principal and eight army personnel charged in connection with the "disappearance" of a group of young people at Embilipitiya in late 1989 and early 1990 continued throughout the year (see Amnesty International Reports 1995 to 1998). Investigations into the abduction and killing of Richard de Zoysa, a journalist, in 1990 (see Amnesty International Reports 1991 and 1992) were reopened.

The report of the presidential commission of inquiry investigating the killing of three detainees at Kalutara prison in December 1997 (see Amnesty International Report 1998) had not been made public by the end of the year.

The LTTE was responsible for grave human rights abuses, including the deliberate killing of two mayors of Jaffna town. Sarojini Yogeswaran, a member of the Tamil United Liberation Front, was killed at her home on 17 May. On 11 September, her successor, Ponnuthurai Sivapalan, was among five civilians killed by a mine which exploded during a meeting at a municipal building. In February the LTTE was held responsible for killing 10 civilians during an attack on the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy. Thirty-four civilians were unlawfully killed in March when an otherwise empty bus believed to be driven by an LTTE member exploded in their midst at Maradana junction, Colombo.

People who refused to cooperate with the LTTE were taken prisoner and sometimes killed; others were unaccounted for. In July and August, four members of the Socialist Equality Party, a left-wing revolutionary party, were taken prisoner by the LTTE and held for several weeks at an unknown location thought to be in Killinochchi district. They were not given access to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). One Tamil member and three Sinhalese members of the seven crew of the passenger ferry Misen taken prisoner in July 1997 (see Amnesty International Report 1998) were released in July and October respectively. In October, two Sinhalese crew members of another ferry who had been held since 1995 and six members of the security forces were also released. Five other crew members, four Sinhalese and one Muslim, apparently held solely on the basis of their ethnicity, had not been released by the end of the year. They were, however, allowed regular access to the ICRC and to communicate with their relatives after March.

Scores of children were reported to have been forcibly recruited by the LTTE in October, particularly in Batticaloa district and parts of the Vanni.

In September/October, an Amnesty International delegation visited the country. In talks with government officials, it focused on measures for the prevention and investigation of torture.

In February Amnesty International published Sri Lanka: Implementation of the Recommendations of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances [wgeid] following their visits to Sri Lanka in 1991 and 1992. Throughout the year, Amnesty International appealed for the full implementation of the recommendations of the three presidential commissions and wgeid, and for the review of ERS, the PTA and the remedy of habeas corpus. It also called for proper investigations into the alleged mass graves at Chemmani, and for international forensic experts to be invited to assist local experts with the exhumations.

Amnesty International repeatedly appealed to the leadership of the LTTE to adhere to international humanitarian law. In a meeting with an LTTE representative in October, Amnesty International expressed concern about the LTTE's apparent breaches of commitments to the UN Special Representative (see above).

Amnesty International sought clarification from the government and the LTTE after an attack apparently carried out by the LTTE on a Lionair airplane in which 55 civilians were killed, and about measures taken by both parties to protect civilian lives. It also urged the government and the LTTE to agree to a UN proposal for the decommissioning of anti-personnel mines.

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