COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

7 MARCH 2012 SRI LANKA
"‘We are helping ex-combatants to return to society and re-integrate with their families
as some of them are breadwinners,‘ he added.
―Responding to a query, the IOM Head said there seemed to be no cases of illtreatment
and the programme was being conducted at a satisfactory level.
―The IOM had commenced a programme to help those rehabilitated even before the war
came to an end in the North, he said.‖
3.45 The US State Department 2010 Human Rights Report: Sri Lanka (USSD 2010) 55 ,
released on 8 April 2011 noted that:
―Human rights groups estimated that approximately 2,400 LTTE suspects were in
regular detention centers. An unknown additional number of unidentified detainees,
estimated by some organizations to be as high as 1,200, were thought to be held in
police stations, the Criminal Investigation Division (CID), the TID, army or paramilitary
camps, or other informal detention facilities. At the beginning of the year [2010] the
government held approximately 11,700 former LTTE combatants in detention centers
near Vavuniya. Some observers were concerned that these excombatants were
subjected to abuse or torture, since independent observers had only limited access to
these detainees and there was no formal legal framework for their detention. Due to
limited access to these detainees, details about their treatment and whether such
treatment met international standards were unavailable. However, independent
observers who met with those released saw no evidence of systematic torture or abuse.
By the end of the year the government formally charged approximately 1,400 of these
detainees and released approximately half of the remaining 10,000 after rehabilitation.‖
3.46 The USSD 2010 56 report added that: ―For much of the year there was no procedure in
place to address the legal status of the majority of the approximately 11,700 former
LTTE combatants held in detention centers since the end of the war. Approximately
5,000 were released throughout the year [2010], while an additional 1,400 were
transferred into the regular prison system and charged with various crimes related to
LTTE activity.‖
See also Situation of (suspected) members of the LTTE
3.47 On 31 May 2011 UN News 57 reported that:
―An independent United Nations human rights expert has called on Sri Lankan
authorities to thoroughly investigate the apparent execution of several men by
Government soldiers, saying a disputed video of the incident seems to be authentic.
―Christof Heyns, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary
executions, described the killings shown on the video – whose authenticity has been
55 US State Department 2010 Human Rights Report: Sri Lanka (USSD 2010), released on 8 April 2011,
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/sca/154486.htm , date accessed 11 May 2011, Section 1b
56 US State Department 2010 Human Rights Report: Sri Lanka (USSD 2010), released on 8 April 2011,
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/sca/154486.htm , date accessed 11 May 2011,, Section 1b
57 UN News, Sri Lanka: UN expert calls on Government to probe executions captured on video, 31 May
2011, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=38564&Cr=sri+lanka&Cr1 date accessed 1 June
2011
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.
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