Rights group slam Sri Lanka’s rejection of UPR recommendations
Highlighting in particular the cases of five students shot dead in Trincomalee beach in 2006, the father of one of the victims, 21-year-old Ragihar, Dr K Manoharan told reporters after the UPR,
"I want an international inquiry and international judgment, otherwise I am not satisfied".Yolanda Foster from Amnesty International added that,
"The Trincomalee 5 case along with the ACF case [where 17 aid workers were executed] is sort of emblematic of a culture of impunity in Sri Lanka where security forces are given carte blanche to continue to commit violations because the state is failing to independently investigate and prosecute".The President of Action Contre la Faim (ACF), Benoit Miribel, president of the French group Action Contre la Faim, said the organisation’s 17 aid workers were shot in the back of the head in their Muttur in August 2006, commenting,
"In reality, the investigation has been a succession of obstruction, interference, of politics in the judiciary and a lack of transparency and independence...Nothing has really happened during the last six years."Ian Seiderman, legal and policy director of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), added to calls for an investigation after Sri Lanka’s UPR rejection, stating,
"This really underscores the need for a proper full-scale international inquiry."Speaking to Public International Radio, Alan Keenan from the International Crisis Group also added that things “things are going from bad to worse in Sri Lanka, in a slow way the world doesn't quite understand”.