Amnesty: Manthuvil Disappearances
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
09 June 2006
UA 164/06 ''Disappearance''
SRI LANKA
Rasanyagampillai Sivananthamoorthy (m), aged 35
Markandu Pushpakanthan (m), aged 26
Kandasamy Parimelalakan (m), aged 29
Vaikundavasan Vikunthakumar (m), aged 22
Ratnam Thayaruban (m), aged 19
Ponnambalam Partheepan (m), aged 22
Selvaratnam Sivanantham (m), aged 22
Ramachandran Rasakumar (m), aged 22
The eight Tamil men named above went to a Hindu temple in
the north of the country on the evening of 6 May, to decorate it
for a religious festival. The following morning they were
reported missing and their whereabouts remain unknown. There
are grave concerns for their safety.
Due to a curfew imposed at the time, it was not until 9 May that,
following complaints by relatives, members of the Jaffna branch
of the Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission (HRC), (a
statutory body conducting independent investigation of reports
of human rights violations), were able to visit the temple, called
Seerani Kelakkai, in Manthuvil East, 7km northeast of
Chavakachcheri town in Jaffna District. There they interviewed
more than 50 people living nearby who said that on 6 May more
than 25 army personnel had come to the temple for no apparent
reason and then left. At the time there were many other people
at the temple getting ready for the festival. Later that night, at
around 1am, the residents reported that a vehicle came to the
temple and they heard gunshots. Soon afterwards they
reportedly saw two army vehicles leaving the temple. At about
4.30am, two more vehicles arrived.
Local people were afraid, and waited until daylight before they
went to the temple to see what had happened. When they
arrived at the temple at 6am, they found some army personnel
there, who when they saw the villagers left immediately in an army truck and an armoured vehicle. They drove in the direction
of Varany army camp, the headquarters of 52 Brigade, which is
3km from the Seerani Kelakkai temple.
The HRC team inspected the site and found bloodstains, several
spent cartridges, some identity cards and discarded clothes lying
on the ground at the temple. The local residents allege that the
eight young men were taken away by the army. One of the men,
Rasanyagampillai Sivananthamoorthy, is the general secretary of
the Temple Trustee Management Board, while Markandu
Pushpakanthan is a member of the Board. After their relatives
complained, the local magistrate reportedly told the police at
Kodikamam, a town near Chavakachcheri, to conduct
investigations into the ''disappearance'' of the eight men.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Sri Lanka has a population of 19.5 million of whom the majority
are Sinhalese (74%), who are mainly Buddhist. The next largest
groups are Tamils (18%), who are mainly Hindu, and Muslims
(7%). Tamil demands for regional autonomy in the island
surfaced during the 1970s and precipitated the start of a conflict
running for over two decades, when the armed opposition
group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) began fighting
for an independent homeland in the north and east of the island.
The government and the LTTE entered into a ceasefire
agreement, known as the CFA, in February 2002. Human rights
abuses have been reported regularly since the CFA was signed,
but they escalated dramatically following a split in the LTTE in
March 2004, with politically motivated killings, torture and the
recruitment of children as combatants being reported from the
east. Since December 2005 violence has spread from the east to
include the north, with numerous armed clashes, killings and
''disappearances'' reported. Over 600 people, including civilians,
have been killed in the north and the east during the past six
months. In response to the killing of army personnel in
landmine and other attacks, attributed to the LTTE, the security
forces have conducted house-to-house searches and other
operations in Jaffna town and other locations in areas where
Tamil people are living.
According to the HRC, over 150 people
have been arrested and then "disappeared'' during the past six
months in northern Sri Lanka, although the actual total may be
much higher. There are fears that a pattern of 'disappearances''
is re-emerging, in a similar way to the period in Jaffna in 1995
and 1996, when hundreds of Tamils ''disappeared'' during army
operations in the area.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to
arrive as quickly as possible:
- expressing concern at reports that the eight men named above
(naming them) were abducted by soldiers at Seerani Kelakkai
Temple on 6 May, and urging the authorities to order an
independent and impartial investigation and make the findings
public;
- urging the government authorities and security forces to clarify
whether the eight men are in custody, and if so, calling on the
authorities to allow them access to their relatives, lawyers of
their own choosing and any medical treatment they may require;
- urging the authorities to release them immediately and
unconditionally unless they are to be charged with a
recognisably criminal offence;
- calling for the authorities to adhere to Presidential directives
requiring detainees arrested by the army to be handed over to
the police within 24 hours of their arrest;
- expressing concern at reports that a pattern of
''disappearances'' appears to be emerging again in northern Sri
Lanka, and calling on the authorities to put a halt to this practice
immediately.
APPEALS TO:
President Mahinda Rajapakse
Presidential Secretariat
Colombo 1, Sri Lanka
Fax: 011 94 11 2333 703
Salutation: Dear President Rajapakse
Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka
Army Commander
Army Headquarters
Flagstaff Street
Colombo 1, Sri Lanka
Fax: 01194 11 2855 018/01194 11 2434 862/01194 11 2338
653/01194 11 2421 374
Salutation: Dear Lt General
Major General Asoka K Jayawardhana
Secretary
Ministry of Defense
15/5 Baladaksha Mawatha
Colombo 3, Sri Lanka
Fax: 011 94 11 2446 300 / 011 94 11 2541 529
Salutation: Dear Secretary of Defense
Mr Chandra Fernando
Inspector General of Police, Headquarters
New Secretariat
Colombo 1, Sri Lanka
Fax: 011 94 11 2438 915
Salutation: Dear Inspector General
COPIES TO:
Ambassador Bernard A.B. Goonetilleke
Embassy of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
2148 Wyoming Ave. NW
Washington DC 20008
Fax: 1 202 232 7181
Email: slembassy@slembassyusa.org
Please send appeals immediately. Check with the AIUSA
Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 22 July 2006.
Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement that
promotes and defends human rights.
This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including
contact information and stop action date (if applicable). Thank
you for your help with this appeal.
|
Home