Lanka guilty of rights abuse: HR Watch
Ap, Colombo
The Sri Lankan government has committed a wide array of human rights abuses in its fight against Tamil rebels, illegally detaining some opponents, secretly abducting others and waging battles with little regard for the safety of civilians, a human rights group said Monday. In a sharp rebuke to the government, New York-based Human Rights Watch called for the creation of a UN human rights monitoring mission in Sri Lanka and appealed to donors to withhold aid to pressure the government to end its abuses. The government said the report was baseless and a violation of the country's sovereignty. "We take every possible step to maintain human rights," said spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella. The government has long blamed the secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels for any abuses that have occurred during the new round of fighting that began nearly two years ago. The 129-page report said the rebels were responsible for killing civilians, recruiting child soldiers and extorting local populations, but that did not alleviate the government's responsibility. "Abuses by the LTTE are no excuse for the government's campaign of killings, 'disappearances' and forced returns of the displaced," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. Sri Lanka has been locked in a civil war since 1983, with the rebels fighting to create an ethnic Tamil homeland in the north and east against the majority Sinhalese-dominated government. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the fighting.
| 
