Human rights conditions have improved since the visit by UN Human Rights High Commissioner Louise Arbour in October, according to local rights groups.
Activists say her visit not only raised awareness but had some tangible results. They point to a drop in the number of abductions in some areas of the country, especially the south, as a sign of its impact.
During her mission to Sri Lanka, Arbour cited the “large number of reported killings, abductions and disappearances which remain unresolved”, adding that it was “particularly worrying in a country that has had a long, traumatic experience of unresolved disappearances”.
Some activists saw Arbour’s visit as drawing new local and international attention to serious human rights violations in Sri Lanka, even though she was unable to convince the government of the need for an international human rights monitoring mechanism, for which many rights groups and some governments have been pressing.
“We have seen the situation improving since the Arbour visit, especially in Colombo,” Brito Fernando, the chairman of Right to Life, a local grassroots organisation that helps families of abductees, told IRIN.
In addition, the government took at least one highly visible step: the Criminal Investigation Department of the Police (CID) opened an information centre to handle public complaints and concerns about abduction and disappearances. “This is a move in the right direction,” Fernando said.
However, some human rights observers point to reports of a drop in reported cases of abductions, especially in the capital, Colombo, as merely transitory. “We saw figures go down in the April to May period as well,” Rukshan Fernando, coordinator, Human Rights in Conflict Program at the Law and Society Trust (LST), told IRIN. “Such fluctuations are only temporary.”
 Photo: Amantha Perera/IRIN  |
| Activists said Arbour’s visit was crucial to bringing local and international attention to serious human rights violations in Sri Lanka |
The LST estimates that in the first eight months of this year, 1,212 people have either disappeared or been killed - an average of five a day. The Sri Lankan government contests these figures, saying abductions have decreased. According to the CID, most of those who have been listed as having disappeared have returned home. The CID has yet to release the names of those returnees.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse addressed criticisms of government action to curtail human rights abuse at a rally in Hambantota district on 31 October, acknowledging “minor shortcomings” the government would seek to address. “Nevertheless,” he said, “I assure you we are innocent of all allegations levelled against us.”
LST, which monitors violations and provides data to local and international rights bodies, including the UN Human Rights Council, said most violations this year took place in northern and eastern areas of Sri Lanka, where fighting between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has continued for the past two years.
Jaffna violations
“More than half of reported disappearances and 28 percent of reported killings took place in Jaffna,” according to the LST report. Colombo, Mannar and Batticaloa districts also recorded high rates of disappearances, with Batticaloa and Vavuniya having high rates of killings.
The level of abductions and other human rights violations can be directly correlated to the level of military operations, LST’s Fernando told IRIN. “When the latter increases, the former invariably spikes as well,” he said. “In the last few weeks, confrontations have increased tremendously.”
 Photo: Amantha Perera/IRIN |
| Some human rights activists campaigning in Colombo said the reported drop in cases of abductions was just temporary |
The Sri Lankan government maintains that its cooperation with the High Commissioner’s office will be limited to the acceptance of technical assistance and capacity building for local agencies. In a 30 October statement, Human Rights and Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said: “The Government has adopted a ‘zero-tolerance’ policy on torture and is closely studying Mr Nowak’s preliminary recommendations with a view to strengthening local institutional and legal frameworks to ensure strict adherence with that policy.”
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