Torture endemic in Sri Lanka police-rights group

[lkdood]

Torture has become endemic in Sri Lankan police stations and there seems to be no political will to stop it, an Asian human rights group said today.

The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission said torture was standard procedure both in investigating ordinary crimes and as part of the civil war with Tamil Tiger rebels.

The government said the allegations were baseless.

Despite thousands of complaints, the commission said the attorney general's office had only launched three prosecutions against alleged official torturers.

''Torture is a way of life at all police stations in Sri Lanka, whether the alleged crimes investigated are those relating to petty criminal offences, serious crimes or offences under the emergency and anti-terrorism laws,'' the commission said in a statement.

Rights watchdogs have reported hundreds of abductions, disappearances and killings blamed on government security forces and Tamil Tiger separatists since a bloody civil war, in which 70,000 people have died since 1983, resumed in 2006.

The commission also said investigations into torture were being politically prevented to protect Sri Lanka's human rights record, and that the lack of political will to eradicate torture affected the entire administration of justice.

International observers quit the island earlier this year, saying a probe into a string of high-profile killings, including the massacre of 17 local aid staff in 2006, was going nowhere.

The UN Human Rights Council has called on Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of killings and disappearances and prosecute those responsible, including members of the security forces.

Fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger guerrillas has intensified since the government formally pulled out of a six-year-old ceasefire pact in January.

The Tamil Tigers, who are fighting for an independent state for minority Tamils in the north and east of the island, have hit back with a campaign of suicide attacks.

deepikaglobal

 

[tamilan18]

blackjuly 83

[FONT=Calibri, Arial]The events of July 1983 are poignant for the entire Tamil population around the world. Between July 24 and 29, Tamils were systematically targeted with violence in Colombo and many other parts of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan Governments officials categorized the violence as uncontrollable race riots instigated by the killing of 13 Sinhala soldiers on the night of July 23. However, history and the course of events during Black July illustrate the Sri Lankan Government’s undeniable involvement in the genocidal acts against Tamils.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, Arial]July 24 (Day 1):[/FONT][FONT=Calibri, Arial] At 1 o’clock in the morning of July 24, the army rounded up hundreds of Tamils in Trincomalee, Mannar, and Vavuniya in the Northeast who had fled the anti-Tamil riots of 1977 and 1981. These Tamils were forcibly taken and left without possessions in the central hills. [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, Arial]Before the riots broke out in Colombo, the army in Jaffna went on rampage killing 51 innocent Tamil civilians. In Trincomalee, similar violence broke out as members of the Navy randomly shot at civilians and burnt down Tamil property.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, Arial]In the evening in Colombo, the state funeral was being organized for the soldiers. Thousands of people arrived at the cemetery but the bodies failed to appear. After waiting several hours, much of the crowd objecting the burial in Kanatte and demanded the bodies to be returned to the next of kin. As the large crowd began to leave the grave, a new group of people (identified as government gangs) entered the Borella junction and raised anti–Tamil cries. As the anti-government cry subsided and anti-Tamil cries became dominant, arson and murdering of Tamils broke out. [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, Arial]July 25 (Day 2): After the midnight lull, mobs were led by people with voter registration lists in hand torched Tamil homes, looted and destroyed Tamil businesses. All traffic was searched, and any Tamils found were killed, maimed, or burned alive. Cyril Matthew, Minister of Industries, was witnessed directly pinpointing shops to be burned down.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, Arial]Many policemen were deployed throughout the city; however, they tacitly stood and watched on. Witnesses recall lorry loads of armed troops leisurely waving to looters who waved greetings back. Curfew was only declared by the President late in afternoon after the worst was over. However, the violence continued unabated. Tens of thousands of Tamils who were homeless, sought refugee in schools and places of worship.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, Arial]In Welikade prison, 35 Tamil political prisoners who were awaiting trail under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, were massacred by Sinhalese prisoners with the complicity of jail guards using spikes, clubs and iron rods. [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, Arial]The violence spread rapidly throughout the country, engulfing towns like Gampaha, Kalutara, Kandy, Matale, Nuwara Eliya and Trincomalee. One town was completely wiped out - the Indian Tamil town of Kandapola, near Nuwara Eliya.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, Arial]July 26 (Day 3): Government imposed a strict censorship of media reporting on the anti-Tamil violence. Word spread of Sri Lanka’s state of disorder as eye witness accounts and photographs taken by returning tourists illustrated the scale of violence. They described how Tamil motorists were dragged out of their vehicles and hacked to pieces while others were drenched with petrol and set alight in full view of the security forces. The International Airport in Colombo was closed. [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, Arial]July 27 (Day 4): 17 more prisoners at Welikade Prison were hacked to death just two days after the prison massacre. The surviving 36 prisoners are transferred to other prisons. Rioting continued and the curfew is extended. Witnesses of the violence reported that charred corpses of Tamil victims lined the streets of Colombo, some mutilated with X’s. [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, Arial]July 28 (Day 5): President J.R. Jayewardene addressed the nation for the first time since the anti-Tamil pogroms, only to fan the flames of anti-Tamil sentiments by stating that anyone who advocated for separatism would lose all their “civic rights”. He states, He states, “….the time has now come to accede to the clamour and natural request of the Sinhala people to prevent the country from being divided.” Vigilantes set up make-shift roadblocks in villages across the island, searched cars and buses for Tamil passengers. In one incident, a Sinhalese mob burnt to death about 20 Tamils on a minibus as European tourists look on in horror. [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, Arial]July 29 (Day 6): Tamils in Colombo began evacuating by cargo ship to the Northern city of Jaffna. Hundreds more internally displaced persons waited anxiously for the next cargo ship to transport them to Jaffna. [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, Arial]July 30 (Day 7): Violence began to dissipate. There was an extreme food shortage in Colombo and across the island as a result of the week long violence. [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, Arial]Post-Riots: Tamils fearing persecution, flea their homeland for Western countries. Tamil began to seek refugee in places such as Canada, Europe, Australia and the U.S. Canada introduces a “Special Measures” program for Sri Lanka allowing family members of those affected by the Anti-Tamil pogroms to join relatives already in Canada.[/FONT]


[FONT=Calibri, Arial]Since 1983, more than 1 million Tamils have left Sri Lanka. They have gone to countries around the world, including Canada, US, UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Norway, South Africa, India, and Australia. Many fled under dire circumstances and sought refugee status in their adopted lands. Many fear to return.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, Arial]A census has not occurred in the North East since 1981, but an estimated 3 million Tamils remain. Of those, an estimated 1 million are displaced internally.[/FONT]


http://www.blackjuly83.com/ExodusOutofSriLanka.htm

 

[dilrasan]

Thx 4 the in4..

 

[pgcanet]

keeeeeeeeeeeeeeep
it
upppppppppppppppp
coooooooooooool
yooooooooooo

 

[henderson]

yeah torture should be stopped.