(London) – The Sri Lankan government continued its assault on civil society and failed to take meaningful steps towards accountability for war crimes during the country’s armed conflict that ended in 2009, Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2013 released yesterday.
In its 665-page report, Human Rights Watch assessed progress on human rights during the past year in more than 90 countries, including an analysis of the aftermath of the Arab Spring.
There was no fundamental progress on key human rights issues in Sri Lanka over the past year, Human Rights Watch said. Overly broad detention powers remained in place under various laws and regulations, leaving several thousand people detained without charge. State security forces committed arbitrary arrests and torture, including sexual assault, against ethnic minority Tamils. Repatriated Tamils allegedly linked to the defeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were at particular risk, Human Rights Watch research found. While the Tamil population in the north benefitted from greater access by humanitarian groups, the military presence kept living conditions from being normalized.
Read More: http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/02/01/sri-lanka-human-rights-failings-detailed
Source: www.hrw.org
