Amnesty
waters down its report
From Neville de Silva in London
The once-respected human rights watchdog Amnesty International issued
a statement on Thursday implicitly chastising the Sri Lanka Government
while hiding from the public one of its reports highly critical
of the LTTE.
In
a 550 or so word public statement, AI has made the briefest of remarks
to the 70 odd military men slain presumably by the Tigers saying
that “around 40 civilians and 60 security forces personnel
have been killed in a month of bloodshed.”
Purna
Sen, Director Asia-Pacific of Amnesty while listing a series of
killings in December writes: “Earlier on December 16, a young
Tamil woman, Ilayathamby Tharshini, was raped and murdered in Punguduthivu
and her body dumped in a well, near a Sri Lanka naval base.”
“The
innuendo is very clear,” said an angry Sri Lankan lawyer.
The well is near a Navy base, therefore the Navy killed her. Is
this the kind of person who runs an international organisation?
Are we to conclude that if a terrorist bomb goes off near the AI
headquarters here in London, somebody at Amnesty planted it?”
This
ludicrous logic is an attempt to bring the country into disrepute,
the lawyer said. A well-informed Tamil journalist based in Europe
claimed that the perpetrators were not Navy personnel but others
who he named under caution and that she was killed for reasons that
he did not want printed.
AI
has urged the Sri Lanka Government to “institute independent
and impartial inquiries into these killings and bring those responsible
to justice.” While Purna Sen urges impartial inquiries, it
was mentioned at AI Chief Irene Khan’s press conference in
Colombo at which Sen was present, by AI itself that “people
are afraid to speak out,” and “people on the ground
are afraid to come forward” to give evidence or any kind of
information.
“It
appears that the killing of security personnel in violation of the
Cease-fire Agreement does not concern this human rights body and
only deserves a passing reference,” said another lawyer.
The
AI research mission’s report which up to now has been suppressed
despite several promises to release it, accuses the LTTE of two
particular crimes - forcible child recruitment and the grabbing
of land in the Eastern province.
However in the statement by Purna Sen the LTTE gets off lightly
with AI “appealing to the LTTE to abide by its commitments
to uphold international humanitarian law.”
“Isn’t
it interesting,” said a London-based diplomat. “The
government is ‘urged’ to hold impartial inquiries while
there is only an ‘appeal’ to the LTTE to respect the
very laws that Amnesty is keen to uphold. That is what you call
an impartial judgment,” he said sneeringly.
(Please
also see Thoughts From London Column)
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