Sri Lanka is near the top of a global ranking of countries where the situation for minorities has significantly deteriorated in the last year, says a new global survey.
Minority Rights Group International (MRG) said Sri Lanka and Pakistan had shown the biggest rise in this year's ranking of "peoples under threat", a major highlight of the international rights group's annual 'State of the World's Minorities' report.
The report was released at the UN in New York last Tuesday.
Sri Lanka jumped 47 places since the previous year and is now in the top-20 list of countries where minority communities are most under threat in 2007.
The breakdown of the ceasefire between Colombo and the Liberation Tigers and intense fighting between government forces and the LTTE have left close to a 100,000 people displaced. Most are from ethnic minority communities, the report said.
Tamils and Muslims are not only caught up in fighting between the government and the LTTE but are specifically targeted for rights abuses, including abductions and disappearances because of their minority status.
"The human rights situation in Sri Lanka is deteriorating by the day. Reports of killings, disappearances and abductions are increasing and these reports are predominantly coming from minority communities," said MRG director Mark Lattimer.
"The worrying factor in Sri Lanka is that multiple perpetrators are operating in a climate of fear and insecurity and little is being done by the government to address the situation," Lattimer added.
The main 2007 list of peoples under threat is led by Somalia, Iraq and Sudan.
The top 20 list includes six Asian and 10 African states.
