COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office
COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office
COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office
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SRI LANKA 7 MARCH <strong>2012</strong><br />
8.48 Human Rights and Security Issues concerning Tamils in Sri Lanka, <strong>Report</strong> from Danish<br />
Immigration Service‘s fact-finding mission to Colombo, Sri Lanka 19 June to 3 July<br />
2010 164 noted:<br />
―A diplomatic mission commented that torture in the law enforcement system is widely<br />
used and documented, but there are only rare cases of prosecution. In general,<br />
impunity for the ones who committed torture is a major issue. The diplomatic mission<br />
also commented that the poorest people are more vulnerable to (severe) torture and<br />
less likely to take successful legal action against torture.<br />
―When asked about the level of torture, the Director of the anonymous local NGO<br />
informed the delegation that it is well documented that confessions are very often<br />
obtained under torture also when it comes to minor crimes. Torture takes place in police<br />
custody as well as by TID, in Boosa detention centre and Galle Prison.<br />
―Ms. Kishali Pinto-Jayawardene [a human rights lawyer and works as a senior<br />
consultant at the Law & Society Trust] said that the Emergency laws have resulted in<br />
the legal mindset of law enforcement officers in Sri Lanka being inclined towards<br />
frequent keeping of people in remand without judicial scrutiny and the use of torture to<br />
obtain confessions. Ms. Kishali Pinto-Jayawardene mentioned that the use of torture is<br />
well documented in Sri Lanka and referred to the reports of the Asian Human Rights<br />
Commission in this regard.‖<br />
8.49 On 19 September 2010 TamilNet 165 reported that:<br />
―The Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) of Sri Lanka government continues to torture<br />
hundreds of Tamil youths arrested and detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act<br />
(PTA) without trial, a journalist who had met the detainees said, under conditions of<br />
anonymity.<br />
―The TID men attack the detainees blindly using iron rods, cricket bat and batons<br />
besides squeezing their testicles. Videos of detainees being killed and tortured are<br />
shown by the TID men to terrorize the detained youths.‖<br />
8.50 On 13 January <strong>2012</strong> BBC Sinhala 166 reported that:<br />
―A Tamil Tiger suspect in Sri Lanka has detailed in the court the alleged torture in police<br />
custody after being abducted by a white van.<br />
―Thyagarajah Prabhakaran, 24, a resident of Puttalam, in a petition to the Supreme<br />
Court state that he was abducted by a group came in a white van in Colombo, on 04<br />
February, 2009.<br />
164 Human Rights and Security Issues concerning Tamils in Sri Lanka, <strong>Report</strong> from Danish Immigration<br />
Service’s fact-finding mission to Colombo, Sri Lanka 19 June to 3 July 2010, October 2010<br />
http://www.nyidanmark.dk/NR/rdonlyres/899724D8-BEEB-4D9E-B3B2-<br />
F2B28A505CCD/0/fact_finding_report_sri_lanka_2010.pdf date accessed 27 May 2011, p50<br />
165 TamilNet, TID torture Tamil detainees held under PTA, 19 September 2010<br />
http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=32648 date accessed 29 September 2010<br />
166 BBC Sinhala, 13 January <strong>2012</strong>, White Van abductee 'tortured in police'<br />
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/<strong>2012</strong>/01/120113_white_van_torture.shtml date accessed 29<br />
January <strong>2012</strong><br />
78 The main text of this <strong>COI</strong> <strong>Report</strong> contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February <strong>2012</strong>.<br />
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section<br />
to 2 <strong>March</strong> <strong>2012</strong>.
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