S Lanka rapped over 'disappeared'

Sri Lanka's government is one of the world's worst perpetrators of enforced disappearances, US-based pressure group Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.

An HRW report accuses security forces and pro-government militias of abducting and "disappearing" hundreds of people since 2006.

Many of the missing are young Tamil men targeted on suspicion of links to Tamil Tiger rebels, HRW says.

Sri Lanka's government says HRW has exaggerated the scale of the problem.

Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona says there has been a "steady decline in disappearances over the last 12 months" because of new measures taken by the government.

"Unfortunately Human Rights Watch has tended to exaggerate the real situation," Mr Kohona said.

He said the group's "unfair" report was based on unsubstantiated claims and "anecdotal evidence", while the government's own investigations into disappearances were proceeding quickly.

Tens of thousands have died since separatist Tamil Tiger rebels began fighting the Sri Lankan government more than three decades ago.

'Inadequate response'

HRW said several hundred cases of disappearances had been reported since 2006, when fighting between the Tamil Tiger rebels and the government intensified.

The rights group said the majority of cases "indicate the involvement of government security forces - army, navy or police".

The group said pro-government armed Tamil groups - such as the faction led by renegade rebel commander Col Karuna - had also been implicated in the abductions and disappearances.

While most of the victims were members of Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil minority, HRW said, some Muslims and Sinhalese had also been targeted.

These included journalists, aid workers, clergy and teachers, HRW said.

Many of the missing were feared dead.

HRW said the Sri Lankan government's response to the disappearances had been "grossly inadequate".

It urged the government to reveal the whereabouts of the missing and prosecute those responsible.

The rights group said the number of disappearances carried out by the Tamil Tigers in government-controlled areas was relatively low.

But it said, the Tigers were responsible for targeted killings, forced child recruitment, bomb attacks on civilians and the repression of basic rights in areas they controlled.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7280050.stm

Edited March 6, 200817 yr by nedukkalapoovan