COLOMBO, Sri Lanka- Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report today detailing the Sri Lankan government’s responsibility for widespread abductions and disappearances.  The report follows government actions taken since the civil war between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) resumed in 2006.

The government has been accused of taking people into custody and then not disclosing their whereabouts or denying that they are holding them all together, a violation under both the Sri Lankan constitution and international law.  Most of these people are ethnic Tamils, although some are Muslims and Sinhalese.  They are abducted because of their possible involvement with the LTTE.

The government denies that their security forces are involved in abductions, and does not believe there is a national crisis.  They have created bodies to investigate possible disappearances, but HRW has found that these bodies are shams and have not reached any real results.

The HRW report documents 99 of several hundred reported cases.  Four of those cases are outlined on HRW’s website here.

According to HRW, “President Mahinda Rajapaksa, once a rights advocate, has now led his government to become one of the world’s worst perpetrators of enforced disappearances.  The end of the ceasefire means this crisis will continue until the government starts taking serious measures.”

For more information, please see:

Human Rights Watch News – Sri Lanka: ‘Disappearances’ by Security Forces a National Crisis – 6 March 2008

Human Rights Watch Publications – Recurring Nightmare: State Responsibility for “Disappearances” and Abductions in Sri Lanka – March 2008