Jaffna HRC official receives death threats

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 March 2008, 06:08 GMT]
Unidentified men phoned an inquiry officer of Jaffna Human Rights Commission (HRC) twice Monday night and issued death threats, and the official has registered a complaint at the HRC Head Office in Colombo, sources in Jaffna said. Death threats and intimidations issued to HRC officials who document rights violations in Jaffna peninsula have caused many to leave the peninsula in the past, the sources added.

The HRC co-ordinating officers and inquiry officers investigate and document rights violations like killings, abductions, forced disappearances.

Earlier, a co-ordinating officer and inquiry officer of Jaffna HRC were assaulted in a police station when they went there on duty and fearing for their lives they had left the country seeking refuge in Canada, sources close to HRC Jaffna said.

Another co-ordinating officer being threatened to death several times sought transfer to an HRC office in the South.

Continued initimidation and death threats of the few officials who remain in Jaffna to carry out rights work will worsen the already deteriorating rights conditions including disappearances and killing in Jaffna, concerned civil society groups in Jaffna said.