Human rights abuse
THE US State Department says in its 1999 report on human rights practices that the ongoing war in Sri Lanka continued to be accompanied by human rights abuses by security forces, who committed numerous extra-judicial killings and almost certainly killed prisoners captured on the battlefield. Arbitrary arrests, including short-term mass arrests and detentions, continued. Torture and impunity for those responsible for human rights abuses remained serious problems. In most cases of extra-judicial killing or disappearance, there was no investigation or prosecution at all. The report further says that there is some discrimination and occasional violence against religious minorities and widespread ethnic discrimination against Tamils. Government restrictions on medical supplies and a significant reduction in food rations contributed to poor health conditions for civilians in the Vanni area.
The pro-government Tamil militant groups, such as PLOTE and TELO, who are armed and at times directed by security forces, committed extra-judicial killings and were responsible for disappearances, torture, detentions, extortion and forced conscription in Vavuniya and the east.
The LTTE regularly committed extra-judicial killings, including prisoners taken in battlefields, and was also responsible for disappearances, torture, arbitrary arrest, detentions and extortion. The Tigers killed close to 100 civilians in the north and at least 14 persons found guilty of offences by the LTTE’s self-described courts were publicly executed. The LTTE continued to control large sections of the north-east through authoritarian military rule. It denied those under its authority the right to change their government, infringed on their privacy rights, forcibly recruited children and severely discriminated against religious minorities.
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