Act Against the Torture and Executions in Sri Lanka

by HumanRights.de, Germany, August 25, 2009

The terrible reality faced by Tamils who are being 'screened' by the Sri Lankan government is seen on this video-clip. This was sent to us by the Sri Lankan journalists organisation JDS. [Also screened on England's Channel 4]

See Video clip in: MPEG4 format in Windows Media format or in 3GP format

For the benefit of those who cannot understand Sinhala – here are some initial observations (parts extracted from JDS statement). From the casual nature of the conversations and from the fact that it is taking place in an open area and in broad daylight - it can be surmised that these are not extraordinary acts by rogue elements carried out without the permission from the top leadership. Further, from the conversation it is clear that the soldiers are not being ordered to do something they are unhappy to carry out. The soldiers egging each other on, the insulting jokes and the laughter shows that there is a consensus that these cold blooded killings should take place. The fact that the bodies of the victims are stripped naked, their hand tied behind their backs as well as the fact that some parts of the conversation is alluding to a certain familiarity between the soldiers and the victims seems to indicate that they have been tortured before the execution.

The Sri Lankan government justifies the imprisonment, for over three months of approximately 280,000 Tamil people in the most deplorable conditions, on the grounds that they are 'screening' for LTTE cadres. These people had previously lived in their own houses under their own administration. As a recent BBC report reveals the interned Tamils have to regularly experience the trauma of the appearance of the 'dolphin vans' in the camps – as these whisk away people – who then disappear. It is widely believed that there are over 10,000 Tamils are held in undisclosed locations. Although the video-clip was taken during the period of the war, there is no reason to believe that the behavior of the Sri Lankan armed forces have changed. The video-clip shows the reality of the Sri Lankan government's 'screening process'.

It is these people who are in the secret camps who are facing the most danger. Although we cannot name most of the people in these secret camps we do know the names of several political leaders of the LTTE and senior administrative officers who are held under these conditions. Nearly all of these individuals had accompanied the hundreds of thousands of people displaced during the final week of the war.

If there is a massive international outcry demanding that these named individuals are not harmed and that they are allowed to have transparent legal access and the ability for medical officers from an internationally recognised organisation like the ICRC to visit them – this will not only safeguard the people named but it will also be a defensive shield on the un-named 10,000 held in secret camps. A outcry will be a kind of international demand for 'Habeas Corpus' from the Sri Lankan government. We urge you try to get this web-page linked in as many sites as possible. We urge you to use your imagination to reach each and every organisation and individual that you know who can make a difference.

Here are the list of the individuals that we know are being held by the Sri Lankan government.

6) S. Elilan (political leader of the LTTE - Trincomalee)