On 28 May, the Colombo High Court refused to accept a confession obtained under torture and released Batticaloa resident Kandasamy Sivakumar, 24, detained for seven years. In another case, the JMO also confirms the torture of Anthony Mala. She was arrested in July 1995, and allegedly hung by the feet and beaten with iron rods, burned with cigarettes and given electric shocks.
Press reports say after complaints of MPs over arbitrary arrests and harassment of Tamils, the Human Rights Commission summoned four senior officers, including Inspector General of police, WB Rajaguru in May and advised that breach of laws and fundamental rights by police was unacceptable.
Thirty eight Tamils were arrested on 17 May in Kataragama, 120 miles south-east of Colombo, suspected of attacks in and around the Yala Wildlife Sanctuary. The following day in a major operation in Kandy nearly 1,000 houses were searched and several Tamils detained.
Despite the human rights situation in Sri Lanka giving cause for concern, Western governments continue to reject Sri Lankan asylum applications, basing their decisions on Position Papers of international refugee agency UNHCR in preference to other information sources. The last Position Paper dated 1 March 1997 maintains that ‘general security conditions and basic observance of human rights standards in government-controlled areas have essentially not deteriorated since mid-1994. UNHCR has also published a Background Paper on Sri Lanka.
The Refugee Council’s view is that the 1 March 1997 Information Note is not intended for use in refugee determination procedure. UNHCR states as follows in a letter to the Refugee Council:
“The primary purpose of the Information Note is to make public UNHCR’s position on the return of rejected asylum-seekers to Sri Lanka, as well as developments in Sri Lanka pertinent to return.....The Note concludes with a paragraph cautioning the readers - mostly government officials - for changes in the situation in Sri Lanka and calling for a careful assessment of claims in the light of up-to-date information.
“.....A background paper is one source of information among many others produced by highly specialised, committed organisations and individuals. One must realise that UNHCR is a refugee agency and not an organisation mandated or equipped for human rights research or monitoring.
“It should be noted that in the absence of a formal agreement like in the case of Switzerland and Sri Lanka....UNHCR does not play an official role in respect of the return of failed asylum-seekers. UNHCR’s main reason for being in Sri Lanka is not monitoring of returned asylum seekers or monitoring of the human rights situation, but protection and assistance of internally displaced persons”.