State-sponsored terrorism and violence is not new in
Sri-Lanka. The country has a long history of violence perpetrated by the state.
Human remains of 200 people were discovered in Matale
in December last year. Politicians belonging to the JVP party allege that the
victims were killed having been tortured
and that the heads, arms and legs of many of them had been severed.
The then government was widely accused of running
torture chambers in the area in the late 1980s and of conducting extra-judicial
executions. As many as 60,000 JVP insurgents were reportedly killed.
According to the Sri Lankan defence ministry website,
the military’s coordinating officer and then commanding officer in the area at
the time was Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
According
to the latest report by Human Rights Watch:
Male and female former detainees told HRW that prior to
being raped, they were forced to strip, their genitals or breasts groped, and
they were verbally abused and mocked.
Many of the medical reports examined by HRW show
evidence of sexual violence such as
bites on the buttocks and breasts, and cigarette burns on sensitive areas like
inner thighs and breasts.
Two men interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that
they had a sharp needle inserted in their penis. In one case, this was used to
insert small metal balls into their urethra by army personnel; the metal balls
were later surgically removed by doctors abroad.
In many cases documented by HRW, the victims knew the
security establishment to which one or more of the perpetrators belonged, and
also identified camps and detention sites where the abuse occurred.
Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) provides effective immunity to officials
implicated in abuses.
Medical and psychological treatment for rape survivors
has also been hindered by the
government. Detainees held under the PTA do
not have an independent right to a medical examination.
Under the PTA, currently in effect, as well as under
the State of Emergency in effect during the war, confessions to the police and other authorities obtained under duress are admissible unless the
accused can prove that they were involuntary.
According
to the latest report by the International Crisis Group:
Government attacks on the judiciary and political
dissent have accelerated Sri Lanka’s
authoritarian turn and threaten
long-term stability and peace. The government’s politically motivated
impeachment of the chief justice reveals both its intolerance of dissent and
the weakness of the political opposition.
Sri Lanka is faced with two worsening and
inter-connected governance crises. The dismantling of the independent judiciary
and other democratic checks on the executive and military will inevitably feed
the growing ethnic tension resulting from the absence of power sharing and the
denial of minority rights.
The government has conducted no credible investigations into allegations of war crimes,
disappearances or other serious human rights violations.
Rather than establish independent institutions for
oversight and investigation, the government has in effect removed the last
remnants of judicial independence through the impeachment of the chief justice.
The government has responded with force to protest and
dissent in the south, deploying troops to prevent the newly impeached chief
justice and supporters from visiting the Supreme Court while pro-government
groups attacked lawyers protesting the impeachment.
“He
who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to
perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really
cooperating with it.” Martin Luther King
Useful links for
more information:
http://blogs.channel4.com/world-news-blog/sri-lanka-skeletons-in-the-cupboard/23784
http://blog.srilankacampaign.org/2013/02/photos-from-sri-lankas-killing-fields.html
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2013/02/201321891416962380.html
http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/12/19/sri-lanka-massgrave-idINDEE8BI04V20121219
