In a recorded statement, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken urged all countries to "stand firmly against the detention of political prisoners" noting that their imprisonment is "devastating and dehumanizing, for prisoners, their families, their communities".
In his statement, he notes that the State Department's latest human rights report "contains evidence of more than 65 countries holding political prisoners". The section on Sri Lanka notes:
"Some Tamil politicians and local human rights activists referred to alleged former LTTE combatants accused of terrorism-related violent crimes as 'political prisoners'. Politicians and NGOs reported that more than 130 such prisoners remained in detention. The government did not acknowledge any political prisoners and claimed the prisoners in question remained detained for terrorist or violent criminal acts. The government permitted access to prisoners on a regular basis by the HRCSL, magistrates, and the Board of Prison Visits, and it allowed the ICRC access to monitor prison conditions. Authorities granted irregular access to those providing legal counsel".
The State Department report goes on to highlight that Sri Lankan "police reportedly harassed civilians with impunity" and that Sri Lanka's Human Rights Council has documented "260 complaints of physical and mental torture from January to August [2020] in addition to 37 complaints from prisoners.
Further human rights concerns include:
"Unlawful killings by the government; torture and cases of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by government agents; arbitrary arrest and detention by government entities; arbitrary and unlawful interference with privacy; restrictions on free expression and the press, including unjustified arrests of journalists and authors; widespread corruption; overly restrictive nongovernmental organization laws; interference with the freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association; serious acts of corruption; lack of investigation of violence against women; trafficking in persons; crimes involving violence targeting members of ethnic minority groups; crimes involving violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex persons; and existence or use of laws criminalizing same-sex sexual conduct".
In his statement, Blinken also noted that political prisoners are often "held without just cause, often because they peacefully exercised their human rights – like freedom of expression – or defended the rights of others". He highlights that often they may be targetted because of their ethnicity or engaged in peaceful protests.
This imprisonment he notes "is designed explicitly to stop critically important work they were doing to serve societies".
"When countries hold political prisoners, they create climates of fear and self-censorship, and they stifle political participation. Often, these abuses occur alongside other forms of repression, like crackdowns on the independent media and human rights groups" he adds.
The statement comes as Tamils across the North-East have been subject to intimidation, harassment, and violence by Sri Lanka's abusive security forces. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) highlighted that after Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa took office in 2019, "there was a surge in cases of police harassment of journalists, including raids, interrogations and acts of intimidation, for all sorts of reasons."
Blinken emphasised the US's commitment to end the plight of political prisoners noting that they would "build effective pressure through multilateral institutions like the UN Human Rights Council and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe". He further described political prisoners as "their country’s best and brightest hope for a future marked by democracy and respect for human rights".
Read Blinken's full statement here.
Read the State Department's report on Sri Lanka here.