UN’s Louise Arbour concerned about human rights violations

M. Malaravan, a young doctor from the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, has been trying to wake up from a terrible, 10-month nightmare: Since 15 December 2006, he has been searching frantically for his father-in-law who went missing after attending an academic conference in Colombo.

The disappearance of Professor S. Raveedranath, vice-chancellor of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka in Batticaloa District and Malaravan’s father-in-law, has been the most high-profile abduction case reported in the last 20 months.

According to the Law and Society Trust, a Colombo based-rights group, 396 persons disappeared in the first half of 2007, the vast majority from the minority Tamil community throughout the country. Other rights organisations have said 1,100 abductions and disappearances were reported between January 2006 and June 2007, a figure the government disputes.

Malaravan was among 200 family members of abductees who gathered on 11 October near the UN compound in Colombo to plead their case to visiting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, who was on a five-day mission to the country.

“She will try to help us as best as she can,” Malaravan told IRIN after meeting Arbour. “Her powers are limited here, but she promised she would do what she can.”

Arbour hopes for greater cooperation with government

Arbour’s visit to the country at the invitation of the government of President Rajapakse renewed hope among many like Malaravan who have been searching for their missing relatives for months. Most have been looking for them for so long that now they simply desire some kind of closure.

“We are not political, all we want is to find out what happened,” Sharmilar Selvarathnam, whose brother, Velu Selvarathnam, has been missing since 6 June 2007, told IRIN. “We have to know for sure what happened to him for us to go on.”

At the end of her visit to the country Arbour expressed the view that greater cooperation between her office and the Sri Lankan government was urgently needed to stem rights violations. “There is a large number of reported killings, abductions and disappearances which remain unresolved,” she said at a media briefing on 13 October, her last day in Colombo. “This is particularly worrying in a country that has had a long, traumatic experience of unresolved disappearances and no shortage of recommendations from past Commissions of Inquiry on how to safeguard against such violations.”

The high commissioner said she had discerned a credible public information gap concerning rights violations in the country and that the deployment of personnel from her office would help to bridge the gap and build public confidence. She also said she felt there were credible allegations of extrajudicial killings and abductions that needed to be investigated.

Human rights “challenges”

Photo: Amantha Perera/IRIN

Vidrasha Selvarathnam, 3, holds a picture of her missing uncle, Velu Selvarathnam, in front of the UN office in Colombo.

The Sri Lankan government, however, said it was opposed to the deployment of international human rights monitors.

“The government’s consolidated position is, we are not willing to discuss in any way an opening of a UN human rights office here,” Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe stated at the joint press conference with Arbour. He said, however, that the government was looking for technical assistance and help in capacity building from the Office of the High Commissioner, a view Arbour heard repeatedly from government officials during her mission.

While calling technical assistance a good thing, Arbour said it was insufficient. “It became very apparent [during the visit] pure technical assistance would not address the human rights challenges,” Arbour said, while adding, “In contrast, people from across a broad political spectrum and from various communities have expressed to me the lack of confidence and trust in the ability of existing relevant institutions to adequately safeguard against the most serious human rights abuses.”

Minister Samarasinghe nevertheless expressed his belief that there was common ground between the Office of the High Commissioner and the government, adding that recently the government had agreed to increase the representation of the high commissioner’s office in Colombo to two. They work under the office of the UN resident representative in Colombo, providing assistance to local institutions overseeing rights violations.

US concern about rights abuses in Jaffna

During her visit Arbour held discussions with President Rajapakse, high-ranking government officials, various political parties and civic groups. She also met family members of abductees in Colombo. She did not travel to the east, but made a brief trip, on 12 October, to Jaffna where she met Catholic Bishop Thomas Samudranayagam, UN officials and civilians.

On 11 October, before her Jaffna visit, the US ambassador to Sri Lanka, Robert Blake, in addressing a luncheon meeting of the US Chamber of Commerce said that rights abuses had increased in the peninsula. “We are particularly concerned about the situation in Jaffna, where the most fundamental rights of people to be secure in their persons and homes are being violated almost daily. The number of extrajudicial killings in Jaffna has risen even higher in recent months.”

Due to government restrictions, the UN high commissioner for human rights was unable to visit areas under the control of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Government officials said the Tigers were likely to use the visit for propaganda purposes and that there were security concerns as well.

Arbour’s message to Tamil Tigers

Photo: Amantha Perera/IRIN

The Sri Lankan Minister for Disaster Management and Human Rights, Mahinda Samarasinghe, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, at a 13 October press briefing.

“I would have liked to convey directly to the LTTE my deep concern about their violations of human rights and humanitarian law, including the recruitment of children, forced recruitment and abduction of adults, and political killings,” Arbour said.

The Karuna faction, which broke away from the Tigers in 2004, also came in for criticism from Arbour for rights’ abuse. “I am very concerned by the many reports I have also received of serious violations by the TMVP (Karuna faction) and other armed groups.”

Local rights activists, however, expressed the hope that despite the obvious disagreements, the Arbour visit could prove a turning point. “We hope that the government takes stock and makes use of such visits and the assistance on offer,” Rukshan Fernando, programme coordinator human rights in conflict at the Law and Society Trust, told IRIN. “The hope is that things will get better now.”

That is a hope that many like Malaravan share as well: “Her Excellency the Commissioner, madam, you have the ultimate power in human rights, we kindly and humbly request you to take this case in your agenda and put pressure to solve this issue,” he said in a letter, one among many handed to Arbour in Colombo.

ap/cb