Human Rights Watch this week urged the Sri Lankan government to take a lead on ensuring accountability for the killing of two Jaffna University students by the Sri Lankan police last month, describing it as "more of the same".
"Human Rights Watch research shows that arbitrary arrests, torture, and extrajudicial killings by the police are all too familiar, and the government almost never holds officers responsible," the organisation said in a statement.
"If the Sri Lankan government really wants to reform its security sector, it will need to take on police abuse, which may only get worse under a proposed new counterterrorism law that expands police powers. It shouldn’t be just public outrage – as with the deaths of Sulakshan and Gajan – that leads to police accountability. The government has to take the lead."
See full statement here.
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