Our new report points to ongoing crimes against humanity in Sri Lanka's north

04/03/2014
We have today released a report that presents credible allegations pointing to the

commission of crimes against humanity by Sri Lankan security forces during the five years since the civil war ended. These crimes include rape, sexual violence, torture, murder, imprisonment, enforced disappearance, other inhumane acts, and land grabs against Tamil civilians in the Northern Province. This report is the first to allege that the overnment!s subse"uent actions after the war and through to the present day also point to the commission of such crimes. These findings underscore the urgent need to demand accountability now, for both post#war and wartime violations. This report makes the legal case for an investigation into post#war violations using the framework of international criminal law. $t relies on public source reports of post#war violations that have been assessed as credible, corroborating these reports with %& in# country interviews with survivors, attorneys, 'ournalists, and human rights campaigners. $t is endorsed by (N Panel of )xperts author *asmin Sooka, (N Special +apporteur on Torture ,uan -ende., former (N Special +apporteur on Torture -anfred Nowak, and international criminal law and human rights law scholar Professor /illiam Schabas. $t has also been endorsed by independent human rights practitioners, including /olfgang 0aleck of the )uropean 1entre for 1onstitutional and 2uman +ights and Toby 1adman of the T-1 advisory roup. The 1entre for ,ustice and 3ccountability conducted a thorough review of the legal analysis and research methodology and endorses the report. 3s ,uan -4nde., (.N. Special +apporteur on Torture, said,

These documented allegations of torture, rape, sexual violence, enforced disappearance, murder, and other inhumane acts against Tamil civilians are troubling in any context and they elicit an affirmative obligation on the State to investigate,

prosecute and punish those responsible. This report raises the disturbing possibility that they have been committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack on the civilian population, which would make them international crimes that should trigger the jurisdiction of international courts if the Sri Lankan judiciary proves unable or unwilling to prosecute them. /e are releasing the report now in the hope of influencing the 2uman +ights 1ouncil to mandate the international 1ommission of $n"uiry that Sri Lanka so desperately needs. 5ut the report also has the longer term ob'ective of changing the way we talk about the situation in Sri Lanka. 1rimes 3gainst 2umanity did not 'ust take place during the final stages of the war in %667, they appear to have taken place since, and right up to the present. Some of these stories are truly horrible. The report documents %6 incidents involving rape, and two further incidents involving sexual assault, 8% incidents involving torture, eight other incidents involving severe violence, nine incidents of arbitrary arrest, four incidents involving murder, and two incidents involving disappearance. $n all cases the perpetrators were members of the Sri Lankan 3rmed 9orces or the Police, and the victims were Tamils from the Northern Province. These incidents have all previously been reported upon, but this report demonstrates that they can be linked together as part of a systemic attack on the civilian population of the Northern Province by members of the Sri Lankan Security apparatus. )xamples include: n !"#$, a Tamil woman from the %orthern &rovince was picked up at home by five or six men and taken into a white van. She was blindfolded and taken to an unknown destination. She was tortured. The first night, she was raped by men in military uniforms who took turns raping her. They continued raping her the following morning. She was tortured including by cigarettes burns all over her body and her genitals. 'n ( )ebruary !"#$, in *affna, a distributor of another Tamil daily, Thinakkural, was assaulted with metal rods at &oint &edro. The attackers burned his motor bicycle and the newspapers. +s a result of his serious injuries, he was rushed to the *affna ,ase hospital n *anuary !"#$, in -ilinochchi, T . officers searched the office of a T%+ /& twice, and claim to have found explosives, pornographic material and condoms in his office. The T . officers arrived at the /&0s office alongside journalists, who took pictures of the T%+ /&0s private secretary and assistant posing with the pornographic material and explosive purportedly found at the office. These images appeared in leaflets that were distributed in and around -ilinochchi town shortly thereafter. The T . officers detained The /& private secretary and assistant. The two were later transferred to ,oosa detention camp, in terms of an administrative detention order issued under the &revention of Terrorism +ct. They challenged their detention in a fundamental rights

application to the Supreme 1ourt. They were later released in %ovember !"#$. %o charge was filed against them at any point, nor was the T%+ /& even 2uestioned regarding the alleged discovery of explosives at his office 'n !( %ovember !"#", the .eputy .irector of 3ducation of *affna .istrict, /arkandu Sivalingam, was shot dead by armed men in 4rumpiai, *affna. 5e had reportedly refused to instruct schools in his educational 6one to sing the national anthem in the Sinhala language. This provides further proof of the pressing need for an independent international investigation in Sri Lanka. $f you haven!t already please sign our petition demanding 'ust that. You can download the report here