Action Alert Archive

Fear in Northeast Sri Lanka spreads as Involuntary Disappearances Soar

March 8, 2007

As the violence in Sri Lanka surges, Tamil civilians have become increasingly fearful of the routine abductions and disappearances in the North and East. Civilians targeted range from community leaders, journalists, and students to children, the elderly, and those displaced by the tsunami, indicating that no one is safe. The Sri Lankan Government has yet to fulfill the necessary investigations and safety measures promised regarding the mass killings and abductions.

Last year, in the eastern districts of Sri Lanka, families have reported over 200 abductions of children by the government-aligned Karuna paramilitary group. However, most of the families claimed that the police took only minimal details without even a photo, and as Human Rights Watch reported, the cases lacked any thorough investigation. Many parents have stopped allowing their children to attend school. In Colombo, the vice-chancellor for Eastern University of Sri Lanka was kidnapped on December 18, and his whereabouts still remain unknown. Sadly even church officials cannot escape the string of abductions. Reverend Father Jim Brown and his assistant Wenceslaus Vinces Vimalathas disappeared on August 20, 2006, last seen being followed by six armed men on motorcycles in Alaipiddy.

The situation in Sri Lanka is only worsening. Recently a panel of global jurists, appointed by the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists, expressed concern over "extra-judicial killings, torture, enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions" by troops in Sri Lanka. We call upon you to express your concern to the Administration and press for impartial international investigations regarding the mass scale abductions and killings. Sanctions against Sri Lanka should seriously be considered to force the government to adhere to basic human rights for all of its citizens.