Sri Lankan govt, tigers accused of killings

Sri Lankan govt, tigers accused of killings

COLOMBO (Reuter): A Sri Lankan human rights group accused the
government yesterday of covering up extra-judicial killings and
abductions by the army in northern Jaffna, former stronghold of
Tamil Tiger rebels.

The rights group, the University Teachers for Human Rights
Jaffna, also accused Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
rebels of carrying out assassinations of those promoting peace
and rehabilitation in the peninsula.

"Though security forces showed a refreshing level of care in
Jaffna, cases of human rights violations continue to be covered
up and the government remains unaccountable for many of their
actions," the group said in a report.

"Cases of unauthorized arrests, beatings, torture and killings
by security forces continue and have become notably worse after
Mullaitivu," said the report by the group.

It was referring to the army's worst debacle in its 13-year
ethnic war with the rebels when the LTTE either killed or
captured 1,400 soldiers in a remote camp in Mullaitivu in July.

A military spokesman declined to comment, saying: "We don't
want to comment just because someone is making allegations."

The report came less than one week after the government
approved a plan to allow Sri Lankans to appeal directly to a
United Nations committee if they had any complaints of rights
violations.

The cabinet approved a plan to ratify the Optional Protocol to
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that
would allow appeals to the United Nations's Human Rights
Committee.

Predominantly Sinhalese government forces seized the Jaffna
peninsula, 320 km (200 miles) north of Colombo, in April after a
series of major offensives against the rebels.

The Tigers, who are fighting for an independent homeland for
minority Tamils in Sri Lanka's north and east, had ruled Jaffna
as a mini-state for almost a decade with their own
administration, courts and police.

"(Since July) there has been an institutionalization of
torture to a point where people see it as part of policy rather
than as an isolated misdemeanor," the report said. "The ease with
which people could go missing is alarming."

The rights group, which issues regular reports on human rights
issues, also said the LTTE continues to use civilians as cover to
attack government troops in Jaffna.

"The LTTE remains determined to block any attempt at peace or
rebuilding, focusing their efforts on selective assassinations,"
it said.

The LTTE was not immediately available for comment.

The human rights group said the government should be more
accountable, open and admit mistakes.

London-based human rights group Amnesty International last
month accused the Sri Lankan government of turning a blind eye to
widespread violations, including extra-judicial executions,
disappearances and torture.

An Amnesty report said the government was trying to justify
such violations in the context of the ethnic war in which Colombo
says more than 50,000 people have been killed.

Colombo reacted angrily to the Amnesty charges, saying it was
unhappy with "highly colored language" in the report.

The Indian Ocean nation has tried to improve its human rights
image after a government crackdown on a left-wing insurgency in
the late 1980s left more than 60,000 people dead or missing.