[ HRW ]

The United Nations Human Rights Council on May 27 passed a deeply flawed resolution on Sri Lanka that ignores calls for an international investigation into alleged abuses during recent fighting and other pressing human rights concerns, Human Rights Watch said today. The council held a special session on May 26 and 27, 2009, on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka, a week after the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) by government forces. “The Human Rights Council did not even express its concern for the hundreds of thousands of people facing indefinite detention in government camps,” said Juliette de Rivero, Geneva advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “The council ignored urgent needs and wasted an important chance to promote human rights.”

[ VoA ]

The United Nations estimates that trapped with the rebels are over 100,000 civilians who are taking refuge in the no-fire zone. According to the U.N., the no-fire area is being shelled by the Sri Lankan military, and the rebels are firing back. Human Rights Watch, a New York-based non-governmental human rights advocacy organization, says that the no-fire zone is so densely packed with civilians and remnants of the LTTE that any shooting or shelling must inevitably cause casualties. “Sri Lanka’s so-called ‘no-fire zone’ is now one of the most dangerous places in the world,” said Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch Asia director.

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[Human Rights Watch]

“It is time for concerned governments like Japan, India, and the US to ensure that President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government and the Tamil Tigers allow the victims of this conflict to live with justice and dignity. Both sides should agree to a humanitarian corridor and otherwise respect the laws of war.” Our latest research shows that up to two thousand civilians have been killed by the Sri Lankan army and the Tamil Tigers since early January in the most recent round of fighting. We got reports of many civilian deaths, which have occurred in areas that the Sri Lankan government has declared to be “safe zones”, where the Sri Lankan army has repeatedly and indiscriminately shelled. Hospitals have been frequently hit.

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[Human Rights Watch]

A humanitarian evacuation of civilians is desperately needed right now. Sri Lanka should urgently work with concerned governments to help civilians flee the fighting. Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.(New York) - The Sri Lankan government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) should immediately agree to a plan of action to allow civilians trapped in the Vanni to leave the conflict area, Human Rights Watch said today. Some 150,000 civilians are at grave risk from fighting and aid shortages in the shrinking war zone in northeast Sri Lanka.

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[Voice of America]

A U.S. Senate committee Tuesday focused its attention on the situation in Sri Lanka, where the military is engaged in an intense battle with Tamil Tigers as the two sides struggle for control of what is believed to be the last of the rebel strongholds. Witnesses at the Senate hearing decried the actions of both sides in one of Asia’s longest running wars. Anna Neistat, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, told a Senate Foreign Relations committee hearing that human rights violations are being committed by both sides in Sri Lanka’s 25-year-old conflict.

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[Los Angeles Times]

The number of civilian deaths in Sri Lanka has risen sharply in the last month, Human Rights Watch said Friday, calling on both sides in the protracted civil war to stop firing at civilians or shelling areas where they are concentrated. The government has been battling the Tamil Tiger rebel group, which wants a homeland for the Tamil minority, for the last 25 years. In recent weeks the army has stepped up its offensive, boxing in the rebels in a smaller area in the north. But by some estimates, up to 100,000 civilians are trapped in the war zone, with both sides unwilling to halt their fire and let them flee.

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[BBC]

The campaign group, Human Rights Watch, has accused the Sri Lankan army of “slaughter” and rebels of “brutality” towards civilians in the north-east. It called on the government to end its “indiscriminate artillery attacks” on civilians and its policy of “detaining displaced persons in internment camps”. Human Rights Watch also condemned the Tamil Tigers for “increased brutality” towards trapped civilians. The government and rebels both strongly deny targeting civilians. Top UN humanitarian official John Holmes is currently in Sri Lanka and is visiting camps of displaced civilians in the north-east.

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[Human Rights Watch]

The Sri Lankan government should immediately cease its indiscriminate artillery attacks on civilians in the northern Vanni region and its policy of detaining displaced persons in internment camps, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Since early January 2009, civilian casualties have skyrocketed in the fighting between the Sri Lankan armed forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

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[OneWorld.net]

In a designated safe zone in northern Sri Lanka, weekend fighting has put civilians back in the war zone. A new “safe zone” has provided some respite for tens of thousands of local residents, reports the United Nations, but that area also experienced some fighting in the past several days. “The Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) should take immediate steps to allow thousands of civilians trapped in a shrinking conflict zone safe passage and to ensure that they receive desperately needed humanitarian aid,” says international rights monitor Human Rights Watch.

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[ HRW ]

A Sri Lankan government statement that it is not responsible for the safety of civilians who remain in areas controlled by the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) indicates an appalling disregard for the well-being of the civilian population and is contrary to international law, Human Rights Watch said today. There are continuing reports of high civilian casualties in the fighting between government forces and the LTTE in the Mullaittivu district of the northern Vanni area. A Ministry of Defense statement issued on February 2, 2009, states: “While the Security Forces accept all responsibility to ensure the safety and protection of civilians in the Safety Zones, they are unable to give such an assurance to those who remain outside these zones.

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