Sri Lanka: Humanitarian access urgently needed

Over 250,000 civilians have been displaced by the Sri Lankan civil war and are now held by the government in de facto internment camps where they live in dire conditions without adequate security, food, water, and medical care.

Amnesty International continues to receive consistent reports of widespread and serious human rights violations, including enforced disappearance, extra-judicial executions, torture and other ill-treatment, forced recruitment by paramilitary groups, and sexual violence.

UPDATE: 11 JUNE 2009
Our new report on Sri Lanka argues that over the past 20 years the failure of successive governments to deliver justice for serious human rights violations has trapped the country in a vicious cycle of abuse and impunity.
Find out more | Read the report (PDF)

Background information

Amnesty International has been monitoring the very serious humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka over the recent months. International efforts on behalf of the civilians in Sri Lanka have intensified in the last few weeks as the war between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam drew to a conclusion, at least in terms of military operations. Civilians in Sri Lanka have suffered from a long history of human rights violations by the government and abuses by the LTTE and other para-military groups. Over 250,000 Internally Displaced Persons need food, shelter, health care and other relief, but also protection from physical abuse, enforced disappearances and other human rights violations.

The Government of Sri Lanka says that it is committed to winning the peace.  Effective protection of human rights will be an essential element of this.  The Government of Sri Lanka should welcome, not resist, cooperation with the Human Rights Council and the international community.

The immediate priority must be to allow the world and global bodies such as UN to see what is happening now in Sri Lanka.  The lack of independent monitoring creates a climate that allows for grave human rights violations to be committed on a large scale. In addition to the widely reported severe problems related to access to food, shelter and medical treatment for IDPs, Amnesty International has received credible reports of grave human rights violations which include arbitrary arrests, torture and other ill-treatment and enforced disappearance, at registration and screening points and at camps for IDPs in the north-east. It is very difficult to verify the veracity of these reports in the current climate, which makes the immediate presence of independent observers all the more important.

More information and reports on the crisis in Sri Lanka

Over 250,000 civilians have been displaced by the Sri Lankan civil war and are now held by the government in de facto internment camps where they live in dire conditions without adequate security, food, water, and medical care.

Amnesty International continues to receive consistent reports of widespread and serious human rights violations, including enforced disappearance, extra-judicial executions, torture and other ill-treatment, forced recruitment by paramilitary groups, and sexual violence.

UPDATE: 11 JUNE 2009
Our new report on Sri Lanka argues that over the past 20 years the failure of successive governments to deliver justice for serious human rights violations has trapped the country in a vicious cycle of abuse and impunity.
Find out more | Read the report (PDF)

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