COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

7 MARCH 2012 SRI LANKA
state of emergency lapsed in August 2011; on 30 September about 1,000 were thought
to remain in detention (‗Sri Lanka releases 1,800 former Tamil rebels‘, Associated
Press, 30 September 2011.)
―According to Regulation 22 (4), EMMPPR 2005, as amended, the Commissioner
General of Rehabilitation shall ‗endeavour to provide the surrendee with appropriate
vocational, technical or other training‘. Training reportedly provided in rehabilitation
camps, even where potentially beneficial, has been imposed on people who are
arbitrarily detained without access to judicial review and thus cannot be considered
voluntary; it has reportedly included political indoctrination. Article 9(1) of the ICCPR
prohibits arbitrary detention. UN Human Rights Committee, General Comment 8, para.
1. considers that this applies to all deprivations of liberty, including where detention is
for ‗educational purposes. In addition to detainees held in rehabilitation facilities, some
1,900 others suspected of being what the Sri Lankan authorities have referred to as
hard core LTTE suspects have been administratively detained under the Prevention of
Terrorism Act since the end of the conflict in 2009. Most have still not been charged with
any offense.‘‖
4.17 A letter from the British High Commission (BHC) Colombo dated 9 November 2011 86
reported:
―The British High Commission in Colombo regularly monitors the treatment of ex-LTTE
cadres in Sri Lanka and rehabilitation/reintegration programmes.
―The CGR [Commissioner General of Rehabilitation] stated in January 2011 that in total
5,686 persons had been released. There remained 4,658 ex-combatants detained in the
9 rehabilitation centres gazetted into law as being Protective Accommodation and
Rehabilitation Centres (PARC). The Sri Lankan military operates these camps with
involvement from various ministries. Those detained would continue to be released in
batches over the next few months.‖
4.18 The same BHC letter 87 went on to add that:
―There were still a number of persons who are detained under the category of ‗active
LTTE members who have been served with detention orders under the Emergency
Regulations and are to be charged with offences‘. In the last few days there have been
various quotes from the CGR and other military spokesmen regarding this group, but
exact numbers are scarce. We are told around 1,000 had been transferred into the
regular judicial system and another 703 were continuing to be investigated by the
Terrorism Investigations Department (TID) with a view to following them into the judicial
system.‖
―In December 2010 and January 2011 small batches of this group appeared before
Magistrates in Colombo. TID told the Courts that these persons had been arrested
under the instruction of the Defence Secretary after having been found hiding amongst
IDPs in various camps. TID added that they were awaiting instruction from the AG‘s
[Attorney General] Department. All those that appeared were further remanded in
custody.
86 British High Commission Colombo, letter to the UKBA COI Service, dated 9 November 2011
87 British High Commission Colombo, letter to the UKBA COI Service, dated 9 November 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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