SL Government's respect for Human Rights declines in 2006- US

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 March 2007, 05:14 GMT]
US Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2006, released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, reported human rights problems in Sri Lanka including "unlawful killings by government agents, high profile killings by unknown perpetrators, politically motivated killings by paramilitary forces associated with the government and the LTTE, and disappearances."

The report added that Human rights monitors have reported "arbitrary arrests and detention, poor prison conditions, denial of fair public trial, government corruption and lack of transparency, infringement of religious freedom, infringement of freedom of movement, and discrimination against minorities. There were numerous reports that armed paramilitary groups linked to government security forces participated in armed attacks, some against civilians."

The report mentions several cases where the Sri Lanka authorities fail to prosecute the accused or failed to conduct inquiries into the killing.

On the abduction and killing of TamilNet senior Editor, Dharmaretnam Sivaram, the report said: "At year's end former People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) Arumugam Sriskandarajah, alias Peter, arrested for the April 2005 murder of Tamil journalist Sivaram Dharmaratnam, awaited trial. The court released Sriskandarajah on bail."

External Links:

USGov:

Sri Lanka: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2006