COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

SRI LANKA 7 MARCH 2012
―The United Nations human rights office today called for the swift investigation and
prosecution of the killers of a prominent human rights defender whose body is believed
to have been found, 17 months after he disappeared.
―A body exhumed yesterday in Sri Lanka is thought to be that of Pattani Razeek, the
managing trustee of Community Trust Fund (CTF) and a leading member of regional
non-governmental organization (NGO) networks, according to Ravina Shamdasani, a
spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
―‘We hope that investigation and prosecution of this crime will now be expedited, and
that there will be similar progress in resolving the many thousands of outstanding cases
of disappearance in Sri Lanka,‘ she said.‖
15.04 On 14 December 2011 Sri Lanka Brief, quoting Groundviews 271 reported that:
―On December 10th 2011, a group of 42 HRDs and political activists from the South of
Sri Lanka were detained by police in the Northern town of Jaffna and prevented from
attending a protest to mark international human rights day in Jaffna.
―The protest on December 10th 2011 was organized by a collective of civil society
groups and activists including Right to Life, International Movement against
Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), Committee to Investigate Disappearances (CID),
families of the disappeared and political parties including the Tamil National Alliance,
Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP), the Socialist Party, and Communist Party of Sri
Lanka (Maoist) to highlight key human rights issues and ongoing violations particularly
in the North of Sri Lanka.
―The HRDs were released at around 12.45 pm by the HQI and allowed to join the
protest in pairs.‖
15.05 On 6 January 2012 BBC News 272 reported that:
―Campaigners in Sri Lanka have urged the United Nations to intervene in the case of
two activists believed to have been abducted last month.
―Some accuse the security forces of abducting the men but police say they are doing
their best to find them.
―Lalith Kumar Weeraraj and Kugan Muruganathan organised demonstrations by the
families of missing people.
270 UN News Centre, After body of Sri Lankan rights defender is apparently found, UN calls for action,
29 July 2011 http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39188&Cr=sri+lanka&Cr1 date accessed
26 January 2012
271 Sri Lanka Brief, 42 Political Activists and HRDs Detained and Prevented from Participating in
Peaceful Protest in Jaffna Town on Human Rights Day, 14 December 2011
http://www.srilankabrief.org/2011/12/42-political-activists-and-hrds.html#more date accessed 26 January
2012
272 BBC News, 6 January 2012, Appeal to UN over missing Sri Lanka activists
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16443096 date accessed 6 January 2012
116 The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February 2012.
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section
to 2 March 2012.