Friday, August 14, 2009

IDPs1

The Sri Lankan government's failure to deliver justice for serious human rights violations over the past sixty years has trapped the country in a vicious cycle of abuse and impunity. The failure of successive Sri Lankan governments to provide accountability for serious human rights violations, including enforced disappearances, killings, torture and rape.

The Sri Lankan government should initiate internal reforms and seek international assistance to prevent ongoing violations and ensure real accountability for past abuses.

300,000 Tamil civilians remain interned without trial in so called "welfare centers" that are concentration camps in all but name. Contrary to international law there is no freedom of movements of the displayed and there is not enough water, food and sanitation.

There have been reports saying that more than 1400 people are dying in the camps every week. As it is almost impossible for independent organizations or international press to enter the camps we do not know what is really happening there.

The Sri Lankan government bears the entire responsibility for the atrocious situation in the camps. According to the Sri Lankan government the Tamil Tigers were completely defeated in the war and no longer exist. However, the government's violence against the Tamil people continues.

I believe that as long as the Sri Lankan government rejects the calls for access and fair treatment of the Tamils interned in the concentration camps, economic sanctions and arms embargo should be imposed against Sri Lanka. The extensive and systematic human rights abuses have to stop.

2 comments:

  1. Can't believe that all major international loans are not linked to insuring basic human rights. Money should have been made to be put aside to help the tamil people.
    The Sri Lankan government should remember that the victors in any conflict are judged on how they behave in victory!

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  2. Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa appear to be building permanent Sri Lanka Guantanamo-like concentration camp to house many of the 300,000 rnnocent Tamil civilians from the last phase of the war with the Tamil Tiger rebels, despite promising to resettle 80 per cent of them by the end of the year.
    Aid workers have told that permanent buildings are being erected at The Sri Lanka Guantanamo-like concentration camp site where the UN says that 300,000 of the refugees are being held after the Tigers’ defeat in May.
    The Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa originally proposed holding the innocent Tamil civilian in “welfare villages” for up to three years to check that they were not Tigers, and to clear their villages of mines.
    After donor nations protested and Tamil MPs and activists compared the barbed wire enclosures to concentration camps, the Government promised to resettle 80 per cent of the refugees by the end of this year.
    Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the Defence Secretary, who is also the President’s brother, renewed the promise last week.
    Aid workers said that Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa meant to hold refugees for much longer.

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