COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

SRI LANKA 7 MARCH 2012
its final report on their probe into the three-decade long LTTE conflict and the manner in
which it was conducted.‖
See also Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC)
4.14 The South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), Timeline 2012(accessed on 3 February
2012) 83 , noted on 10 January 2012 that:
―Sri Lanka plans to strengthen security in the country to prevent any resurrection of the
vanquished LTTE, Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa [stated]. He observed that
the LTTE, although defeated in the country, is still active overseas and groups
sympathetic to the LTTE cause are attempting to revitalize their movement at
international level. Though many LTTE-friendly groups and individuals function
overseas separately, they have one common objective of dismembering Sri Lanka and
establishing a separate State.‖
SITUATION OF (SUSPECTED) MEMBERS OF THE LTTE
Rehabilitation
Return to contents
For further background on ex-LTTE held by the government, see History, Government
treatment of (suspected) members of the LTTE (up to December 2010)
4.15 The HRW World Report 2012, Sri Lanka 84 , released on 24 January 2012, noted that:
―The government has gradually released many, but not all, of the more than
11,000 suspected LTTE members detained at the end of the war and sent to so-called
rehabilitation centers. The government denied detainees important due process
guarantees, such as access to legal counsel, and thousands spent two years or more in
detention. There are reports that some people released from the rehabilitation centers
were harassed by security forces after they returned home.‖
4.16 The Amnesty International, Sri Lanka: Briefing to the UN Committee against Torture
2011, October 2011 85 observed:
―Regulation 22 of the Emergency (Miscellaneous Provisions and Powers) Regulations
2005 (EMPPR 2005), as amended by Emergency Regulation 1462/8, 2006, provided for
administrative detention of up to two years without charge or trial for purposes of the
rehabilitation of ‗surrendees‘. According to official statistics of the 11,600 people the Sri
Lankan government alleged had links to the LTTE and who either surrendered to the
army or who were arrested by the authorities out of displaced persons camps following
the armed conflict in 2009 were subjected to mass detention in facilities the Sri Lankan
government called rehabilitation centres. Many detainees allege that they were forcibly
recruited by the LTTE. Around 2,700 individuals remained in these facilities when the
83 South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), Timeline 2012, undated (accessed on 3 February 2012)
84 Human Rights Watch, World Report 2012, Sri Lanka , released on 24 January 2012
http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/wr2012.pdf date accessed 1 February 2012
85 Amnesty International, Sri Lanka: Briefing to the UN Committee against Torture 2011, October 2011
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cat/docs/ngos/AI_SriLanka47.pdf , Introduction (footnote 1), date
accessed 13 January 2012
48 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.