LOS ANGELES: Sri Lanka’s government appears to be backing the terror tactics used by its security forces to suppress armed opposition, Amnesty International reported September 18.
Thousands of people have “disappeared” or been killed at the hands of security forces in recent years in the south and hundreds more have fallen victim to this violence in the latest wave of Repression in the northeast.
The worldwide human rights organization said that since 1987 the security forces have killed under many guises in uniform, in plainclothes operations attributed to “vigilantes,” and in death squads that were sometimes directly linked to members of the ruling United National Party.
People have been shot in their homes and in captivity, bodies have been openly dumped on roadsides, in fields and in rivers, and others have been burned, mutilated or moved to other areas to avoid identification. Entire communities have been attacked in retaliation for opposition violence and many people have been arbitrarily rounded up, and sometimes killed, on the basis of anonymous accusations of subversive involvement.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 28, 1990
