LONDON: Reports of extrajudicial executions in southern Sri Lanka have increased dramatically since a state of emergency was reimposed in June, the Amnesty International said here.
Many hundreds of defenseless people have been among those deliberately killed by security forces and pro-government paramilitary groups attempting to quell increasing violent opposition in the south, Amnesty International charged in a new report released here.
The report said that by September 1989 it was receiving reports of well over a thousand people being killed each month, with daily reports attributing random killings of members of suspect ‘communities to the security forces or paramilitary forces assisting them,
‘The World Human Rights Organization said that the tactics of Criminal violence used by the opposition Janatha Vikukthi Peramuna (VP) have increasingly been mirrored by government and paramilitary. “Both sides have openly displayed the bodies, severed heads and limbs of their victims to instill terror in others.”
Al says it is particularly concerned that some killings appear to have been carried out to prevent effective investigation of human rights violations.
‘The human rights body is also calling on the government of Sri Lanka (o withdraw an emergency regulation which permits the disposal of bodies by the security forces without post-mortem of inquest. It believes this regulation encourages deliberate killings by the security forces by enabling them to destroy bodies before an inquiry can be held into the cause and circumstances of death.
The government says these forces operate independently and without official sanction, but Amnesty International points to evidence indicating their links with the regular security forces or politicians belonging to the ruling united national party.
‘Amnesty international has called for an impartial commission of inquiry to investigate these allegations.
Responsibility for many of the reprisal killings carried out in 1989 has been claimed in the name of various pro-government “vigilance” or paramilitary groups.
Many victims have been young people suspected of supporting the JVP, or who live in areas regarded as strongholds.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 5, 1990
