Govt. in firing line at UN sessions

Human Rights Watch, a leading human rights organisation based in the US, is planning to release a critical report on Sri Lanka in late September to coincide with President Mahinda Rajapaksa's visit to the United Nations.

The study is deliberately timed for late September to get maximum political mileage and widespread media coverage during the UN General Assembly sessions beginning on Tuesday September 25, the day the President is billed to speak.

If the report is released as scheduled, it will also be a political embarassment to the President and may shift the focus of his visit to defending the Government's faltering human rights record.

In a letter to the President, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said: “Over the past year, we have become more and more concerned about the conduct of the Sri Lankan Government, which has been implicated in serious human rights abuses since the resumption of major hostilities in 2006.”

The letter said HRW has also “consistently documented and criticized the policies and practices of the LTTE in recruiting children as soldiers, targeting civilians, killing political opponents, and extorting money from civilians in its fund-raising abroad. We have reported on some issues, in particular, indiscriminate attacks by the armed forces and complicity of security forces personnel in abductions by the Karuna group.”

There were also many other concerns such as arrests and detentions under the Emergency Regulations, and the Prevention of Terrorism Act, enforced disappearances, and attacks on freedom of expression and association.

The letter, which was received by the Presidential Secretariat, said HRW was preparing material for publication of the human rights record of the Government and was seeking the Government's cooperation “to ensure that the documentation is accurate, objective, and complete.”

Meanwhile, there is speculation that two other groups, Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists, are also planning similar reports ensuring a three-pronged attack on the Government during the General Assembly sessions.