Several human rights organisations have reacted to Sri Lanka’s rejection of 100 UPR recommendations made by states at the United Nations and called for international independent investigations into massacres of aid workers and civilians.
Highlighting in particular the cases of five students shot dead in Trincomalee beach in 2006, the father of one of the victims, 21-year-old Ragihar, Dr K Manoharan told reporters after the UPR,
In his interview he added that,
He also stressed that the UPR played an important role in the run up to the next session of the UN Human Rights Council, saying,
Highlighting in particular the cases of five students shot dead in Trincomalee beach in 2006, the father of one of the victims, 21-year-old Ragihar, Dr K Manoharan told reporters after the UPR,
"I want an international inquiry and international judgment, otherwise I am not satisfied".Yolanda Foster from Amnesty International added that,
"The Trincomalee 5 case along with the ACF case [where 17 aid workers were executed] is sort of emblematic of a culture of impunity in Sri Lanka where security forces are given carte blanche to continue to commit violations because the state is failing to independently investigate and prosecute".The President of Action Contre la Faim (ACF), Benoit Miribel, president of the French group Action Contre la Faim, said the organisation’s 17 aid workers were shot in the back of the head in their Muttur in August 2006, commenting,
"In reality, the investigation has been a succession of obstruction, interference, of politics in the judiciary and a lack of transparency and independence...Nothing has really happened during the last six years."Ian Seiderman, legal and policy director of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), added to calls for an investigation after Sri Lanka’s UPR rejection, stating,
"This really underscores the need for a proper full-scale international inquiry."Speaking to Public International Radio, Alan Keenan from the International Crisis Group also added that things “things are going from bad to worse in Sri Lanka, in a slow way the world doesn't quite understand”.
In his interview he added that,
"The basic picture is that after the end of the war the machinery of repression and intimidation -- all of that machinery used to win the war -- has continued to function. So you continue to have repression of the media, attacks on the independence of the judiciary, significant numbers of enforced disappearances. You continue to have the military effectively run the Tamil areas of the northeastern provinces. You continue to have large-scale corruption and you have impunity for the thousands of cases of extrajudicial killings, disappearances and, likely, war crimes over more than two decades of war."See his full interview here.
He also stressed that the UPR played an important role in the run up to the next session of the UN Human Rights Council, saying,
"The other reason this is an important event is that it comes four months before the next session of the Human Rights Council in March, 2013, where the lack of progress that Sri Lanka has made in implementing a resolution from March 2012 by the Human Rights Council will come up for discussion and debate. So it's the first salvo in a larger battle -- the battle to define and get international recognition of the situation in Sri Lanka.
Unfortunately, the international community has not spoken out enough on this issue."
