Ambida, Jescel Hannah B.

Torture Is Common Practice in Sri

Lanka, U.N. Panel Finds
By NICK CUMMING-BRUCEDEC. 7, 2016

GENEVA President Maithripala Sirisena swept to a surprising election

victory about two years ago promising political changes and human rights
protections in Sri Lanka.

On Wednesday, a United Nations committee questioned the governments

commitment to fulfilling those promises, pointing to the continued use of
torture by the police and a failure to rapidly investigate and prosecute
atrocities committed by security forces and Tamil Tiger rebels at the end of
the countrys 26-year civil war in 2009.

In delivering its conclusions from hearings conducted over two days in

Geneva at the end of November, the United Nations body, the Committee
Against Torture, said it was deeply concerned by evidence that torture was a
common practice routinely inflicted by the police Criminal Investigation
Department in a large majority of cases, regardless of the suspected offense.

The committee also expressed concern at the governments apparent

reluctance to address broader problems.

What we saw was that the government has not embarked on institutional
reform of the security sector, Felice D. Gaer, one of two committee experts
who led the examination of Sri Lanka, told reporters in Geneva.

Theres some question about their commitment to a lot of things that are
needed and have been promised in that country in this very difficult time,
she added.

The committees findings reinforce deepening concern among human rights

activists that Mr. Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe are
backpedaling on the promised institutional cleanup for fear of antagonizing
the countrys powerful security services.

A United Nations panel estimated that up to 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians

may have died in military operations that ended the civil war, and
investigators subsequently detailed horrific accounts of extrajudicial killings,
torture, sexual violence and enforced disappearances.
After his upset victory over President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Mr. Sirisena said
he would set up a truth, justice and reconciliation commission; create an
office to investigate the fate of tens of thousands of missing persons; prohibit
torture and create a judicial mechanism to ensure accountability for past
atrocities.

But Mr. Sirisena said last month he had written to President-elect Donald J.
Trump asking for help to free Sri Lanka from those obligations and planned
to make the same request to the next secretary general of the United Nations,
Antnio Guterres of Portugal.

If its true, it completes the reversion which was already underway, Alan
Keenan, a Sri Lanka specialist for the International Crisis Group, said of Mr.
Sirisenas claim to have contacted Mr. Trump. There was always a doubt
about the commitment of the president and prime minister. As time goes on,
those doubts have grown.

The Committee Against Torture acknowledged measures taken by Mr.

Sirisena to counter past atrocities by, for example, setting up an Office of
Missing Persons and adopting a national plan to promote human rights. But
the committee said the government had made no progress on longstanding
investigations into extrajudicial killings and expressed concern at its failure
to set up promised mechanisms to prosecute crimes.

A wide range of continuing abuses were also noted by the committee, which
cited a revival of so-called white van abductions, named after the vehicles
used in the kidnappings of suspects who disappeared into unregistered places
of detention. In addition, the committee criticized the continued use of
administrative detention under draconian antiterrorism legislation and the
lack of credible witness protection.

Those concerns were underscored, Ms. Gaer said, by the alarming presence of
Sri Lankas national intelligence chief, Sisira Mendis, in the delegation sent to
meet the committee. Mr. Mendis had served as deputy inspector general of
the Criminal Investigations Department for a period of 15 months up to June
2009.

He was the person with command responsibility over the most notorious
center for abuse in the country just at the end of the civil war, at a time when
so many of the horrendous things happened, Ms. Gaer said.

The committee had asked him many questions, Ms. Gaer added, but Mr.
Mendis did not say a word the whole time he was there.