Michael de Laine

Amnesty says India should raise human rights issues in Sri Lanka

By Michael de Laine, Copenhagen, 16th January 2009

India’s foreign minister should use his visit to Sri Lanka to voice concern over human rights issues and attacks on the media in the island state, where government forces are fighting Tamil Tigers in the north east, said Amnesty International.  

As the Indian Foreign Secretary visits Sri Lanka this week, Amnesty International (AI) has urged him to raise concerns over the safety of displaced civilians trapped in the Wanni in his discussions with the Sri Lankan government.

In an open letter to Shivshankar Menon, Amnesty International has asked him to pay special attention to the severe difficulties facing the people caught in the middle of the fighting, with Sri Lankan government forces closing in on Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) bases in the north-eastern part of the island.

The letter also calls on Menon to discuss the general deterioration of human rights in the country, even in areas not directly affected by the conflict.

More than a quarter of a million people, mostly Tamils, face immense hardship and are running out of safe space in the face of intensified fighting between the two sides, AI said.

These displaced persons are trapped in the Wanni, between the approaching Sri Lankan security forces and the LTTE, which has imposed restrictions on their ability to leave and is using them as an involuntary pool of recruits and labourers.

With the Sri Lankan governmentís recent recapture of Killinochchi, hundreds of thousands of people have been compressed into a smaller area and are increasingly vulnerable. As the fighting encroaches on the trapped population, there are fears of a further mass exodus of civilians.

In November 2008, AI said the displaced people faced acute food and shelter shortages.

At the time, the organization welcomed the food supplies that were sent by the Indian authorities. However, humanitarian supplies, including those sent by the Indian government, have since dwindled.

The letter to Menon says aid workers fear that many of the displaced are “vulnerable to potential public health problems and are receiving far less calories than the daily recommended allowance.”

It adds that “civilians injured in the fighting cannot be transported outside the Wanni for urgent treatment due to road closures by the security forces.”

Despite assurances by the Sri Lankan government that the situation is under control, there is evidence to suggest that the authorities lack the capacity to provide the required humanitarian relief to displaced people.

“Humanitarian access to the Wanni continues to be restricted,” says the letter. “Only government-approved food convoys are allowed to enter the area since the authorities ordered the United Nations, and nearly all humanitarian agencies, to withdraw from the Wanni on 9th September 2008.”

At the end of December, an inter-agency support mission accompanied a World Food Program-led convoy in order to monitor implementation of United Nations (UN) funded programmes and conduct a needs assessment.

“The mission noted increased vulnerability of the civilian population due to several factors,” AI’s letter to Menon states. These factors include: ongoing fighting, new and repeated displacements into an increasingly compressed area, flood damage, and reduced capacity and material to address urgent shelter and sanitation needs.

Amnesty International has also asked Menon to address the increasing number of attacks on the media. 

Lasantha Wickramatunge, editor of the Sunday Leader, was assassinated in Colombo recently, AI said. 

There was also an attack on the privately owned Maharaja television/MTV studios in Colombo, which were ransacked by a gang who used claymore bombs to damage property.

Amnesty International called on Menon to:

• raise the issue of civilian protection 
• press for urgently needed humanitarian assistance to reach civilians who are trapped between the two sides
• put pressure on the LTTE to allow free passage of displaced families from the Wanni with immediate effect
• press for international monitors to assess the humanitarian needs of quarter of a million people trapped in the Wanni and to ensure proper distribution of food and other humanitarian assistance, particularly as the fighting approaches the trapped civilian population
• raise the issue of attacks on the media and press for impartial investigation into them
• discuss the general deterioration of human rights in the country, even in areas not directly affected by the conflict