Lingering impunity
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL says in a February report that although the Sri Lankan government has taken a number of measures, it has failed to implement essential recommendations of the UN Working Group on Disappearances on structural, institutional and policy issues that encourage continuing disappearances. Since the present government came to power in 1994, over 755 disappearances have been reported, including 100 in 1997. Amnesty has raised several issues in the report which facilitate disappearances. Arrest receipts to relatives as required by Presidential directives are not systematically issued and full information on detention and transfer of prisoners is not provided to the Human Rights Commission and the local magistrates. Continuing detention in secret places, especially in Jaffna, Vavuniya and Colombo in contravention of the law is a serious failure of safeguards. Amnesty urged the Sri Lankan government to tackle the root causes, such as, the lingering sense of impunity among security forces and the sweeping powers of Emergency regulations and the Prevention of Terrorism Act allowing incommunicado detention for long periods. Amnesty also called on the UN Human Rights Commission to ensure that Sri Lanka agrees to a programme of implementation of the recommendations and to establish a regular agenda item to monitor progress.
According to reports, four Tamils arrested by the security forces in Vavuniya and Batticaloa in January and February have disappeared. Batticaloa MP Joseph Pararajasingham said in March that 13,000 people have disappeared in the Eastern Province since 1990, over 8,000 women widowed and 6,000 children orphaned.
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