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Amnesty waters down its report
From Neville de Silva in London
The once-respected human rights watchdog Amnesty International issued a statement on Thursday implicitly chastising the Sri Lanka Government while hiding from the public one of its reports highly critical of the LTTE.

In a 550 or so word public statement, AI has made the briefest of remarks to the 70 odd military men slain presumably by the Tigers saying that “around 40 civilians and 60 security forces personnel have been killed in a month of bloodshed.”

Purna Sen, Director Asia-Pacific of Amnesty while listing a series of killings in December writes: “Earlier on December 16, a young Tamil woman, Ilayathamby Tharshini, was raped and murdered in Punguduthivu and her body dumped in a well, near a Sri Lanka naval base.”

“The innuendo is very clear,” said an angry Sri Lankan lawyer. The well is near a Navy base, therefore the Navy killed her. Is this the kind of person who runs an international organisation? Are we to conclude that if a terrorist bomb goes off near the AI headquarters here in London, somebody at Amnesty planted it?”

This ludicrous logic is an attempt to bring the country into disrepute, the lawyer said. A well-informed Tamil journalist based in Europe claimed that the perpetrators were not Navy personnel but others who he named under caution and that she was killed for reasons that he did not want printed.

AI has urged the Sri Lanka Government to “institute independent and impartial inquiries into these killings and bring those responsible to justice.” While Purna Sen urges impartial inquiries, it was mentioned at AI Chief Irene Khan’s press conference in Colombo at which Sen was present, by AI itself that “people are afraid to speak out,” and “people on the ground are afraid to come forward” to give evidence or any kind of information.

“It appears that the killing of security personnel in violation of the Cease-fire Agreement does not concern this human rights body and only deserves a passing reference,” said another lawyer.

The AI research mission’s report which up to now has been suppressed despite several promises to release it, accuses the LTTE of two particular crimes - forcible child recruitment and the grabbing of land in the Eastern province.
However in the statement by Purna Sen the LTTE gets off lightly with AI “appealing to the LTTE to abide by its commitments to uphold international humanitarian law.”

“Isn’t it interesting,” said a London-based diplomat. “The government is ‘urged’ to hold impartial inquiries while there is only an ‘appeal’ to the LTTE to respect the very laws that Amnesty is keen to uphold. That is what you call an impartial judgment,” he said sneeringly.

(Please also see Thoughts From London Column)

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