"The UNHRC has tried to nudge Sri Lanka towards rebuilding civilian lives through resettlement, reducing the military presence in the north and east, and delivering accountability for past crimes through a credible judicial process with international participation. However, the update presented by High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein in Geneva does not present an encouraging picture. He expressed concern about the “heavy military presence” in Tamil areas, noting that the process of the military returning land to its civilian owners has been tardy. There is a lack of urgency in coming up with tangible measures to build confidence among minorities and victims of human rights violations. In turn, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera has informed the ongoing session in Geneva that the government has instructed the military to release by 2018 all civilian land it holds. He has promised that the proposed judicial mechanism will inspire confidence among the stakeholders, but has drawn attention to the “divergent views” in the country on it, perhaps a hint of further delay."

Updated 0430GMT

Sri Lankan intelligence operatives have reportedly tortured a Tamil man from Mannar, after abducting him from a church on Wednesday morning, reports Ceylon News.

Photograph: Ceylon News

Santhiyogu Anton Dani was abducted from Uyilankulam church in Mannar, where he had sought sanctuary after frequent harassment from Sri Lankan intelligence officers for the past two months.

Mr Dani fled to the church after hearing Sri Lankan intelligence operatives were looking for him. He went missing on Wednesday morning and was subsequently found at Nochchikulam later that evening, at an area some 2 kilometres from the church. 

He was found blindfolded with his body bearing the marks of severe torture.

The victim’s wife Mathuvanthy Anton, said he had been burnt with heated metal sticks and severely beaten. During several hours of torture, he was also hung by his neck and is currently unable to speak properly, she said.

Ms Anton has reported the incident to local police in Mannar.

Photograph: @Mari_deSilva

Mr Anton told his wife that abductors had walked into his room in the church, tied his hands and bundled him into a vehicle before taking him away and torturing him. He added that he had seen another person being badly tortured by his abductors.

Santhiyagu had been previously arrested in 2001 on suspicion of aiding the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Tamil Eelam. After undergoing torture in government custody, Mr Anton was later released by Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court without any charges. He has reportedly been frequently tortured by Sri Lankan security forces since at least 1998.

A United States State Department report on human trafficking said that official complicity in human trafficking in Sri Lanka remained “a serious problem”, as it placed Sri Lanka on the Tier 2 Watch List for the fourth consecutive year in its annual report on trafficking.

“The Government of Sri Lanka does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking,” said the report, noting that “it is making significant efforts to do so.”

The State Department report said that Sri Lanka was granted a waiver that would have allowed it to downgrade a tier as the government had “devoted sufficient resources to a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute significant efforts to meet the minimum standards”.

Yet implementation of that plan was missing, according to the report.

“Despite these measures, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing anti-trafficking efforts compared to the previous reporting period,” it stated.