Forty New Cases of Post-War Torture Documented in Past 8 Months

by Freedom From Torture, UK, September 24, 2014

Some of the almost 50,000 files of torture survivors referred to Freedom from Torture (REUTERS/Dylan Martinez)

In light of its latest evidence, published today, Freedom from Torture is calling on Sri Lanka to allow free and unfettered access to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights as a matter of urgency and for the new Commissioner Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein to include ongoing torture in his investigations.

Freedom from Torture is one of the world’s largest torture rehabilitation centres, providing psychological treatment and other services to over 1000 torture survivors each year.

As the new High Commissioner prepares to update the Human Rights Council on the Sri Lanka inquiry, the medical charity revealed that in the last eight months its doctors have documented 40 new cases of post-war torture perpetrated between 2009 and 2013. Of these new cases:

  • 13 date from 2013
  • 10 date from 2012
  • 7 date from 2011, 2 from 2010 and 8 from 2009

Added to the organisation’s previously released data, this means that Freedom from Torture has now forensically documented* 160 cases of individuals tortured since Sri Lanka’s civil war ended in 2009.

The overwhelming majority of these cases are ethnic Tamils, and the key factor that led to their detention and torture appears to be a real, or perceived, connection to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) – either their own, or that of a family member or acquaintance.

Of these 160 cases, 35 were detained and tortured in 2012 and 2013. In 2013, as in 2012, Sri Lanka was the top referral country to Freedom from Torture for torture cases with almost a quarter of all referrals to the organisation comprising Sri Lankan nationals.

Dr Juliet Cohen, head of doctors at Freedom from Torture, said:

“Our doctors are seeing first-hand that targeted torture continues in Sri Lanka. We are treating individuals displaying physical and psychological consequences of torture techniques that regularly include suffocation and sexual torture, and presenting with horrific scarring caused by ‘branding’ with hot metal rods – a technique that ensures an individual can be easily identified by the authorities in the future.”

Susan Munroe, Chief Executive, Freedom from Torture, said:

“The forensic reports our doctors produce indicate strongly that torture is still very much part of the Sri Lankan’s government’s repression machinery almost five years after the end of conflict. This cannot be ignored. While the UN inquiry into human rights violations and possible war crimes during the closing stages of the civil war is a vital step towards accountability, the international community must face up to the reality that abuses continue today.

“The Council should mandate the UN High Commissioner to specifically include a focus on ongoing torture in his inquiry and Sri Lanka should allow him free and unfettered access to conduct it urgently.”

Tamil asylum-seekers being deported from UK despite evidence of torture

Report submitted to UN suggests there has been no let-up in mistreatment of those linked with Sri Lanka rebel group

Tamils pay tribute to Tamil victims during a rally in Geneva

Tamils during a rally denouncing genocide in Sri Lanka at the European headquarters of the UN in Geneva, Switzerland earlier this month. Photograph: Salvatore Di Nolfi/AP

The UK continues to deport Tamils seeking political asylum to Sri Lanka, despite strong evidence that the security forces systematically use torture against those suspected of dissident activity five years after the end of the country’s civil war.

A new report by the Freedom From Torture advocacy group, based on medical evaluations of victims, found that many were subjected to branding and two thirds of those examined suffered rape or other sexual torture. The report, which has been submitted to the UN’s human rights committee in Geneva, suggests there has been no let-up in the use of torture of those suspected of links with the Tamil Tigers, despite the decisive defeat of the rebel group in 2009.

Nearly three dozen of the torture victims were Tamils living in the UK who were picked up by Sri Lankan security forces while on visits home to see friends and family. Despite this evidence, the Home Office continues to carry out fast-track deportations back to Sri Lanka of Tamil asylum-seekers who show evidence of having been tortured.

“The removals are in full force. There is an increase of the refusals of Sri Lankan asylum claims in the last couple of months,” said Kulasegaram Geetharthanan, a London lawyer who represents many Tamil asylum-seekers. He said the pace of removals appears even to have been stepped up. “I have to be in court almost every day, unusually.”

The Home Office policy conflicts with a high-profile Foreign Office initiative – launched in June by former foreign secretary William Hague and Angelina Jolie – to campaign against the use of rape as a weapon of war.

Juliet Cohen, Freedom From Torture’s head of doctors who was involved in the drafting of the FCO’s protocol for preventing and documenting sexual violence, said that among 90 recent victims of torture at the hands of the Sri Lankan security forces, (almost all Tamils) a significant majority were raped or endured other forms of sexual abuse. The report includes 40 new cases reviewed by Freedom From Torture’s medical team from November 2013 to August this year. The UK-based group said that last year more torture victims from Sri Lanka were referred to it for care last year than from any other country.

Sri Lanka rejects accusations that it uses systematic torture against prisoners. It has denied visas to investigators from the UN’s office of high commissioner for human rights, which is due to report on Sri Lanka on Wednesday.

“The key message is really clear. Torture is ongoing and has real prevalence in Sri Lanka, particularly directed at Tamils,” Dr Cohen said. “Sixty-five per cent of the group are disclosing sexual assault of some kind, and we have to bear in mind that without doubt a proportion of the victims would not disclose sexual abuse.”

“We are very concerned that people with UK visas have got back to Sri Lanka to see family or attend a wedding and within days of return they are picked up and tortured. They have been shown photographs of themselves attending demonstrations against the Sri Lankan government in this country and then, while they are being tortured, they are told identify others in the photos.”

Of the UK-residents Tamils detained and tortured when they visited Sri Lanka in 2013, almost half were picked up at the airport on arrival, and almost all the rest were seized within a few days.

In nearly three-quarters of the 90 cases documented in the new report, “clinicians documented evidence of scarring caused by burning from lit cigarettes and/or heated metal objects such as metal rods. In a small number of instances, a caustic substance such as chilli powder (or an unknown caustic substance) was reported to have been forced into the eyes or onto the skin of detainees.”

One of the Tamils facing imminent deportation from the UK back to Sri Lanka, has multiple scars on his back consistent with having been branded with a hot rod. Juvarajah Kunarethinam, a 29-year-old Tamil refugee, said he was press-ganged into joining the Tamil Tigers in 2002 but was allowed to leave after he broke his arm in training. In 2006 he was abducted by a pro-government Tamil unit called the Karuna group that subjected him to beatings for 10 days, during which time his captors demanded information about his elder brother, a Tamil Tiger member. Then in 2009 he was detained again, this time by the army, and held in prison for two months, during which time he was threatened with execution, beaten, punched and branded with a heated metal rod. A medico-legal report from 2012, found his scars were “highly consistent with the history of a burning hot instrument being used in an assault to the client’s back.” The report also said that Kunarethinam was withdrawn, suffered chronic headaches and had great difficulty sleeping because of flashbacks from his torture. The report said: “it is highly likely he is suffering from trauma related mental health problems and this would be highly consistent with the given history of torture and ill treatment in his home country.”

Kunarethinam’s bid to appeal against deportation was rejected earlier this month. When asked for the reasoning behind the decision, the Home Office said that it does not routinely comment on individual cases.

“What I think stands out in Sri Lanka is a culture of impunity,” Dr Cohen said. “We see victims from many countries around the world but what we see in the Sri Lankan group is that not only is the torture very brutal, the victims are often disfigured with obvious scars. There is no attempt to hide this by his interrogators. They are not expecting anyone to hold them to account for this.”

Cohen added: “It’s particularly tragic to see one of the victims of Sri Lankan torture from 20 years ago who is still recovering and then to see people tortured in 2013 who may never recovered. Nothing has changed.”

The Home Office said: “The UK has a proud record of offering sanctuary to those who need it, but people who do not have a genuine need for our protection must return to their home country.

“We only undertake returns to Sri Lanka when we are satisfied that the individual does not need international protection. The upper tribunal of the immigration and asylum chamber has found that not all Tamils are at risk on return.”

Comments are disabled on this page.