Sri Lanka urged to sack named security top brass for alleged torture of Tamils
- Post 26 February 2019
An international human rights watchdog has called for the immediate sacking of several top officials of Sri Lanka’s security establishment for alleged ongoing torture and sexual violence.
The country’s top spy as well as the second in command of the military have been named alongside two others by the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP).
If S
ri Lanka is serious about tackling ongoing torture it needs to suspend and investigate a number of well-known security officials named in United Nations reports in connection with torture, said ITJP.
It names Chief of State Intelligence Service Sisira Mendis, Chief of Army Staff Major General Shavendra Silva, ex-Army Commander Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya and Senior Deputy Inspector General Nandana Munasinghe as those to be suspended and investigated immediately.
47 perpetrators
In a statement from Johannesburg, ITJP warns the government that it has identified the names of 47 alleged perpetrators of extremely brutal torture in one security unit alone, as part from “a number of alleged rapists of Tamil detainees in the Sri Lankan Army (including one recently training abroad) and perpetrators of torture in the Sri Lankan Navy. One alleged perpetrator of torture is currently posted in an overseas embassy, while two others have been living in Australia recently.”
The demand comes as Sri Lanka’s human rights record is due to be reviewed by the UN Human Rights Council, which launched its 40th session in Geneva on Monday.
The ITJP has documented 76 very cases of torture from 2015-17. 57 of them have suffered sexual violence. 24 of the 76 victims have told ITJP that it was not the first time they had been detained and tortured post-war in Sri Lanka.
The exposure comes in the wake of Britain’s leading organisation for rehabilitation of torture victims calling for the prosecution of alleged perpetrators.
In its latest report released in Colombo Freedom from Torture had examined details of torture of 16 Tamils aged 17-43.
Guatemalan model
“If we sitting abroad can collect such a huge body of evidence, think what a credible team inside the country with police powers could achieve,” said the ITJP’s executive director, Yasmin Sooka.
“From the outset we offered to help this Government establish an independent international investigative unit, such as the one in Guatemala, but we never heard back from them. It’s crucial to dismantle these entrenched structures of repression linked to corruption and human smuggling – otherwise the broken brutalised victims just keep amassing.”
Sri Lanka, which is a party to the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, claims it follows a “Zero Tolerance Policy” on torture.
However, it is yet to answer formal questions from the UN Committee on torture especially about the role of Sisira Mendis.
ITJP has been continuously reporting on cases of torture and sexual violence in Sri Lanka and had brought a number of universal jurisdiction cases against former army commander Jagath Jayasuriya in 2017 in Latin America in connection with torture and other grave violations.
Last year ITJP and the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) called upon the government to question Major General Shavendra Silva for the largest number of disappearances all in one place and time in the country.
In 2017, ITJP challenged the appointment of Nandana Munasinghe to the government Victims and Witness Protection Authority.☐
© JDS
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