The International Truth and Justice Project ITJP a rights group documenting alleged abuses in Sri Lanka gave details in its report of 15 members of the minority Tamil community who said they were sexually assaulted over the past two years by authorities.
Together, their testimony is the most detailed account of the new abuses in the island nation since the federal government became president in 2019 after former wartime defense chief Gotabaya Rajapaksa died.
The Reuters country is a country where torture is savage and there is no inclination on the part of the government to do anything about it, Yasmin Sooka, a rights lawyer who co-authored the report, told Reuters.
What you have is a kind of tacit approval, really, of those at the highest levels who condone what is happening. The allegations rebut the allegations in this report, according to Keheliya Rambukwella, an alternative health minister who also serves as a senior government spokesman, told Reuters. Some previous allegations of kidnapping and torture had been proven by vested interests and later made to be false, he said, without elaborating. Spokespeople for Sri Lanka's military and police declined to comment on the report. Sri Lanka ended a 25-year civil war between ethnic Tamil insurgents from the separatist minority and government forces in 2009. In the war, rights groups accused both sides of abuses. The 15 alleged victims identified - one woman and 14 men - were not identified in the report. They had taken part in commemorations for people killed in the war, worked as volunteers for Tamil political parties or received funds from abroad on behalf of people under surveillance. Three of the 15 were members of Tamil Eelam Liberation Tigers, the main group that beat the government during the war, though many were children at the time. After being suffocated the alleged victims said they were subjected to treatment including being suffocated with petrol-soaked plastic bags and penetrated with an iron rod. The alleged victims who fled Sri Lanka are now seeking asylum in Britain and took part in interviews with lawyers over the course of several days. Nine of the 15 cases had supporting medical reports compiled by independent experts confirming torture, the ITJP said. Those photographed that had not been examined medically were photographed to show their scars. None had been charged with a crime. The report is issued before a Session of the UNHRC UNHCR which starts on Monday and will look at Sri Lanka. The United Nations has given its human rights boss, Michelle Bachelet, a mandate to collect evidence of crimes against humanity committed during the Civil War. Bachelet has at least 28 retired or serving military and intelligence figures in key administrative posts, including some mentioned in UN accounts on alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, told Rajapaka in January. Sri Lanka will present its viewpoint at the upcoming United Nations Human Rights Council's sessions later this month and show the progress that has been made in moving forward reconciliation, Rambukwella said. The ITJP has previously served Rajapaksa two civil lawsuits against the ITJP, proceedings for one of which were served in a California parking lot in 2019. At that time, Rajapaksa was a US citizen. Both cases were asked after Rajapaksa received diplomatic immunity on his first term earlier the same year.