HRW report based on unsubstantiated, outdated information

COLOMBO: The latest report by Human Rights Watch on Sri Lanka is largely tendentious, and is replete with generalisations. It refers to issues that have been largely resolved.

These largely unconfirmed and unsubstantiated allegations and outdated information do not justify the demand for a special UN Observer Mission on Human Rights in Sri Lanka, states the Presidential Secretariat.

“Among the unsubstantiated information are the numbers of persons who have allegedly disappeared and the number of IDPs. The work of Government agencies to establish the whereabouts of these persons has been ignored.

The Report also ignores the fact that the numbers of alleged disappearances and abductions have sharply declined in recent months due to the firm action taken by the Government and the arrest of two criminal gangs against whom legal action is being pursued.

A Special Commission appointed by the President is investigating specified instances of unlawful killings and disappearances, and the work of this Commission is being observed by an International Group of Eminent Persons.

It is regretted that insufficient attention has been paid by Human Rights Watch to the fact that these allegations are made against the background of a campaign against a brutal terrorist group, the LTTE, which has been banned as an international terrorist organisation by many countries; and which has for many years been engaged in gross violations of Human Rights, particularly the recruitment and use of children for armed conflict.

The LTTE also exploits the freedoms of democracies, particularly in the West, to obtain funding from abroad to purchase more weapons to use against the democratically elected Government of Sri Lanka, and to oppress the people under its jackboot.”