Protection denied
LONDON-BASED human rights agency Amnesty International says in a November report titled Sri Lanka: Government’s response to widespread disappearances in Jaffna, that although there is no evidence that over 600 Jaffna disappearances were sanctioned by the political leadership, the Sri Lankan government is responsible for failing to protect civilians under its jurisdiction. The government has rejected the report as partial, but the Defence Ministry’s Board of Investigation has traced only 180 people out of 760 complaints and the Human Rights Commission is probing 274 disappearances. Amnesty further says the Army tortured hundreds of people in Jaffna and several reports of rape by soldiers were received. LTTE’s sporadic human rights abuses in Jaffna, say Amnesty include indiscriminate killing of civilians during attacks on the Army and execution of civilians suspected of collaboration. Amnesty has urged the government to introduce further measures for prevention and accountability for violations and review Emergency regulations and the Prevention of Terrorism Act which fall short of international standards.
Meanwhile, the Foodfirst Information and Action Network (FIAN) says in its report to the 17th session of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in November that the Sri Lankan government’s 106-page report to the Committee is silent on the undernourishment and malnutrition in north-east districts where nearly a million people are displaced. FIAN says the government survey on nutrition has excluded the eight districts in the north-east and the supplementary feeding Triposha programme has not reached the north-east in the past two years.
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