Amnesty International Report 2002 - Sri Lanka

Covering events from January-December 2001

Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
Head of state: Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga
Capital: Colombo
Population: 19.1 million
Official languages: Sinhala, Tamil, English
Death penalty: abolitionist in practice

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An increase in human rights abuses was noted from May in the context of the protracted armed conflict between the security forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Amid political instability and increased military activity, police and security forces were responsible for arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, "disappearances" and extrajudicial executions. There was a marked rise in allegations of rape by police, army and navy personnel, although the number of "disappearances" decreased in comparison with previous years. There was continuing concern about a possible resumption of executions after the government's decision in 1999 to end a long-term practice of automatic commutation of death sentences. Members of the LTTE were responsible for hostage-taking and widespread recruitment of children as combatants. There was a marked decrease in the number of LTTE attacks on civilians. Impunity remained a major concern.

Background

A unilateral cease-fire, declared by the LTTE in late December 2000 amid attempts by the Norwegian government to facilitate a dialogue between the government and the LTTE for a solution to the conflict, was called off by the LTTE in April. Intensified fighting culminated on 24 July with a massive attack by LTTE members on the main military airbase and the adjoining international airport north of Colombo, in which eight military and three commercial aircraft were destroyed. No civilians were killed, although several, including tourists, were injured.

Major political instability developed in late June. Members of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress left the coalition government and a no-confidence motion was filed in parliament. In response President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga suspended parliament for two months in July, a step which, although constitutionally permissible, was widely denounced as undemocratic. In early September, the opposition Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) party reached an agreement to support the government for one year on a "probationary" basis.

A constitutional amendment was passed in September providing for the setting up of a 10-member Constitutional Council and independent commissions to oversee elections as well as to examine the police force, the judiciary and public services. Efforts to initiate these were halted when the President, faced with further defections and a second motion of no-confidence, dissolved parliament on 10 October and called elections. There was a very violent election campaign, with 47 murders reported. The United National Party (UNP) won and formed a new coalition government in December. It reciprocated a cease-fire declared by the LTTE and announced other measures aimed at reviving the dialogue with the LTTE with the assistance of the Norwegian government.

In the midst of the political crisis, the President allowed the longstanding state of emergency in the country to lapse on 4 July rather than risk losing a mandatory vote in parliament over its monthly extension. She invoked separate provisions of the Public Security Ordinance and the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) granting wide powers to the security forces to arrest and detain people suspected of being members of or sympathizers with the LTTE. There was concern that safeguards for the protection of detainees were eroded as a result. With effect from 1 November, a central police registry of people arrested under the PTA and emergency regulations started functioning to allow relatives to obtain information such as the arresting authority and the place of detention. This measure to prevent "disappearances" was one of several recommended by the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances after its first visit to the country in 1991.

Killings of civilians

The failures of both sides in the conflict to take adequate measures to avoid civilian casualties resulted in many deaths. There were allegations that civilians were killed during bombing by the air force. In one such incident reported on 21 March from Nallathanithoduvai, Mullaitivu district, four civilians, including two women, were killed during bombing and shelling. The attacks followed the sinking of a navy gunboat by the LTTE earlier that day.

• Achinte Perera and Manjula Prasad, both supporters of the UNP, were shot dead while participating in a demonstration called by a coalition of opposition parties in Colombo on 19 July. The use of live ammunition against participants in a largely peaceful protest constituted an apparent use of excessive force by the police.

'Disappearances'

There were several reports of "disappearances", five of which remained unresolved at the end of the year. This represented a decline from the number reported in previous years. Cases occurred in Batticaloa and Vavuniya district.

• Murugesu Anandarasa, a 30-year-old shop worker from Maharambaikulam, Vavuniya district, was last seen on 23 April when a friend saw him being questioned by military intelligence officers outside the army's town camp.

Concern remained at the practice of holding detainees in secret detention, particularly by the Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) in Colombo and by the army and members of the People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) in Vavuniya. TID officers were also reportedly responsible for denying prisoners access to representatives of the National Human Rights Commission.

Death in custody

• Kandaiyan Udayakumaran, aged 42, a displaced person from Jaffna, was taken into custody in Savakadu, Mannar, by navy personnel on 28 February. Officers returned to his home the following day and told his daughter that he had been taken for questioning and transferred into the custody of the Mannar police. On 1 March, navy personnel delivered his body to Mannar base hospital. According to the post-mortem report, he had died due to "hypoxia following strangulation of the neck".

Torture and ill-treatment

Torture continued to be reported on an almost daily basis. There were several reports of rape by security forces from various districts, including Mannar, Batticaloa, Colombo and Jaffna. These gave rise to fears that safeguards to protect women in custody, contained in presidential directives for the welfare of detainees issued in 1997, were being ignored. Complaints of torture, including rape, were often not dealt with effectively by police, magistrates and doctors.

• Sinnathamby Sivamany, aged 24, and Ehamparam Wijikala, aged 22, were arrested by navy personnel accompanied by members of the police Special Investigation Unit (SIU) in Mannar on 19 March. They were allegedly raped by navy and SIU personnel at the office of the police Counter-Subversive Unit.

Impunity

Lack of accountability for the perpetrators of human rights violations remained a serious concern. A circular, issued in January by a senior deputy inspector general of police which reinstated all police officers who had been suspended while criminal investigations continued into their alleged involvement in past "disappearances", was seen as a sign of the lack of commitment in the police department to hold its members accountable.

Death penalty

Following the departure from a longstanding practice of automatic commutation of death sentences, concern continued that people sentenced to death after March 1999 would be executed. In May the then Minister of Justice indicated his interest in conducting an in-depth study to "increase understanding of the actual situation of criminality in the country" before resuming executions.

Human rights abuses by the LTTE

There was a marked decrease in the number of civilians killed during attacks attributed to LTTE members. The LTTE "executed" several people it said were responsible for treason, rape or other crimes. There were also reports of abductions of Muslim and Sinhalese civilians, particularly in Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts. Many were released after their families paid ransom money.

• Sundaramoorthy Jeevanthamoorthy, a candidate in the parliamentary elections for the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (Perumal Wing), was killed by members of the LTTE in the early morning of 28 October at Valaichenai, Batticaloa district. Two civilians were indiscriminately killed in the only suicide bomb attack of the year in Colombo on 29 October.

Child soldiers

An intensive recruitment drive starting in August by the LTTE confirmed fears that children were recruited as combatants. Scores of children were recruited in Batticaloa district, particularly in the divisions of Vakarai, Vavunativu, Pattipalai, Porativu, Eravurpattu and Koralaipattu. Some were as young as 10. Reports also indicated that many families who refused were compelled to leave their homes and were displaced to other parts of the district. There were also reports of intensified recruitment in the Vanni, the area to the south of the Jaffna peninsula largely controlled by
the LTTE.

PLOTE members recruited children as young as 12 in the Vavuniya area in early 2001. An inquiry by the Criminal Investigation Department later found three children being trained at a PLOTE camp. They were returned to their parents. Several others known to have been recruited by the PLOTE remained unaccounted for.