Amnesty International today issued both the following news release and the following urgent action appeal on Sri Lanka. For more information on Amnesty’s concerns in Sri Lanka, please visit http://www.amnesty.org.

Sri Lanka: Government must investigate paramilitary group violations
ASA 37/010/2001 113/01

An upsurge in arrests, “disappearances” and torture linked to paramilitary activity in the Vavuniya area must be urgently addressed by the Sri Lankan government, Amnesty International said today in a letter to President Kumaratunga.

“The People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), paid and armed by the government, has been perpetuating a pattern of systematic abuses,” the organization said.

Fifteen children who were allegedly being trained by PLOTE at the “Lucky House” camp have been transferred to an unknown PLOTE camp. Amnesty International is urging the government to locate the children and return them to their families.

Some prisoners who have been arrested by the army intelligence unit have been held at PLOTE camps and in at least one instance were visited by an army officer. Two people remain “disappeared” after they were last seen being questioned by members of PLOTE in early June.

“The continued high level of human rights violations in the Vavuniya District is bolstered by the practises that have developed between the Tamil armed groups, particularly PLOTE, and the armed forces. The armed forces can claim no improvement in the human rights situation until it can exercise control over paramilitary activity.”

Amnesty International is calling on the President to intervene directly: -- to urgently bring all Tamil armed groups directly under proper command and control systems, -- to ensure that Tamil armed groups are not involved in the recruitment of child soldiers, -- to ensure that all places of detention are officially recognised and designated as such, and -- to conduct a speedy and impartial investigation into the use of unauthorised places of detention and the abuses which have taken place therein.

Amnesty International [4 July 2001]

3 July 2001 UA 163/01

Possible “Disappearance”/Fear Of Torture

SRI LANKA

Karupaya Suntharerasa and Sivarasa Sasikumar have not been seen since 9 June, when they were taken for questioning by an armed political group which operates alongside the Sri Lankan army. They are at grave risk of torture, and are feared to have “disappeared.”

Karupaiya Suntharerasa had gone to a People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) camp called “Malai Maligai” at Rambaikulam, seeking information about someone else held at the camp. This person has since been released, but there is no news of Karupaiya Suntharerasa.

Sivarasa Sasikumar lives with his parents at the Sithamberapuram Welfare Centre, a camp for internally displaced people awaiting resettlement. He was waiting in line to be photographed for relocation documents when PLOTE member approached him and ordered him, in front of many witnesses, to come with him to the local PLOTE camp, at Sithamberapuram.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Those detained by the Tamil armed groups working with the security forces in Sri Lanka such as the PLOTE are frequently tortured or “disappear” while in custody. Many of the “disappeared” are suspected to have been tortured to death in secret places of detention.

Security forces in Sri Lanka persistently allow (if not encourage) members of armed Tamil groups to carry out search operations and screen civilians. This practise has often led to a range of human rights violations including illegal arrest, prolonged detention, torture, “disappearances” and extrajudicial executions.

Until May 2000 it was a legal requirement that each place of detention had to be designated as such and its designation published in the official Gazette. After the introduction of new emergency regulations, that is no longer the case and detainees can now be lawfully held in unauthorised places of detention. Amnesty International is concerned that the removal of such safeguards has increased the possibility of prisoners being held in secret detention and tortured.

Thousands of internally displaced people live in Vavuniya district. Security forces personnel and armed Tamil groups working alongside them play an active role in trying to identify possible members of the armed opposition group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) among these people. The LTTE is fighting the Sri Lankan security forces for greater autonomy in the north and east of Sri Lanka.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible: -expressing concern for the safety of Karupaiya Suntharerasa and Sivarasa Sasikumar, who have not been seen since they were questioned by PLOTE on 9 June 2001;

Urging the authorities to reveal where they are;

Asking that they be immediately released, or transferred to a place of detention under the authority of the Sri Lankan state and charged with a recognisably criminal offense, and allowed access to their family, lawyers and necessary medical care;

Urging that those responsible for their “disappearance” are brought to justice;

Calling for armed Tamil groups to be brought under the command and control of the armed forces;

Seeking the reintroduction of the requirement that all places of detention are designated and gazetted as such.

APPEALS TO:

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga
Presidential Secretariat Colombo 1 Sri Lanka
Telegrams: President Kumaratunga, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Faxes: 011 94 1 33 37 03

Salutation: Your Excellency

Lieutenant-Geberal Lionel Balagalle Army Commander
Army Headquarters Flagstaff Street Colombo 1 Sri Lanka
Telegrams: Commander of the Army, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Faxes: 011 94 1 44 00 87

Salutation: Dear Army Commander

COPIES TO:

Ambassador Warnasena Rasaputram
Embassy of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
2148 Wyoming Ave. NW
Washington
DC 20008
Email: slembassy@starpower.net