Raise human rights concerns with Sri Lanka

(January 15, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Leading global rights watch Amnesty International has asked India to raise with the Sri Lankan government concerns on protection of civilians trapped in the areas, where fighting rages between security forces and LTTE.

In an open letter addressed to Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, who visits Sri Lanka on Thursday, the Amnesty also asked him to discuss with the government the general deterioration of human rights in the country.

'On the occasion of your upcoming visit to Sri Lanka, we call on you to raise, with your Sri Lankan counterparts, concerns about the safety of civilians trapped in the Wanni, as government forces close in on Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam bases in the north-eastern part of the island.'

'We also ask that you discuss the general deterioration of human rights in the country, even in areas not directly affected by the conflict,' the letter read.

The Human rights body said that more than a quarter of a million people, mostly Tamils, face immense hardship and are running out of safe space in the face of intensified fighting between the two sides.

'This population of internally displaced persons is trapped between the approaching Sri Lankan security forces and the LTTE, which has imposed restrictions on their ability to leave and is using them as an involuntary pool of recruits and labourers,' it said.

The rights body also expressed concern over increasing instances of attacks on the media and pointed out the recent killing of a newspaper editor.Some sections of the media in Sri Lanka have pointed fingers at the establishment over the killing of the editor, with private Island newspaper saying in a commentary that the manner in which the killing was carried out seems to point directly at the government.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders alleged that the Mahinda Rajapaksa government was directly to blame for the death of the editor as they had "incited hatred against him.

Human rights activists in London planned to protest the killing of the editor and violence against media in Sri Lanka outside the Lankan Embassy here on January 16.

The Amnesty said it was appalled at the increasing instances of attacks on the media, including the recent assassination of the editor of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunge, in Colombo, and attack on the privately owned Maharaja television studios in Colombo which was ransacked by a gang who used claymore bombs to damage property. - Sri Lanka Guardian