Releasing its country report on Human Rights Practices in Sri Lanka, the US State Department said that 2023 was marred with a slew of “significant human rights issues” including torture, degrading treatment by the government, unjustified arrests, and extrajudicial killings.
Documented by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour, the full report available on the US State Department website finds the “government took minimal steps to identify and punish officials who may have committed human rights abuses,” which includes “crimes involving violence targeting Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and Tamils”.
The full report can be found here.
Under sections that elaborate on punishment and cruel treatment by the state, the US State Department noted that in 2023 “civil society organizations reported some Tamils from the north alleged police illegally detained and tortured them and questioned them regarding connections to the LTTE or participation in protests.”
The killing of Alex Nagarasa also figured in the report adding that although four police officers were arrested over the murder, the officers remained in pretrial detention while investigations continued.
Another finding in the report was that although in August 2023, the Sri Lankan government stated a de facto moratorium on the use of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) had been in effect since March 2022 “at least 15 arrests were made under the PTA”.
“This included nine Tamils arrested in November for alleged use of illegal symbols or images glorifying the LTTE during participation in LTTE Great Heroes Day, an annual event to commemorate fallen LTTE fighters,” it added.
The report also highlighted several incidents of systematic racial and ethnic discrimination adding that “Tamils from the north and east maintained that they suffered long-standing, systematic discrimination in university education, government employment, housing, health services, language laws, and procedures for naturalization of noncitizens”.
“Throughout the country, but especially in the north and east, Tamils reported security forces regularly monitored and harassed members of their community, especially activists, journalists, NGO staff, and former or suspected former LTTE members.”
The State Department’s findings come despite growing military ties between Washington and Colombo.
As the report was released, US Marines were engaging with their Sri Lankan counterparts in a military exercise in Trincomalee this week.
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