URGENT APPEAL - THE OBSERVATORY
LKA 001 / 0108 / OBS 004
Threats / Extra-judicial killing
Sri Lanka
January 14, 2008
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), expresses its deepest concern regarding the following situation in Sri Lanka.
Brief description of the situation:
The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about threats to the security of Mr. Mano Ganesan as well as about the extrajudicial killing of Mr. Thiyagarajah Maheswaran, both Members of Parliament in Colombo District, after the Ministry of Defence instructed the Inspector General of Police to withdraw personnel from the security units of several parliamentarians, including their security units.
According to the information received, on December 18, 2007, the security of Mr. Ganesan, also the President of the Democratic Workers Union, the founder and convener of the Civil Monitoring Commission on Extra-Judicial Killings and Disappearances (CMC) and the leader of the Western People's Front, a former trade union which has evolved into an opposition party representing a largely Tamil constituency in Colombo and its environs, was severely curtailed without any notice. Indeed, on that evening, Ministerial Security Division (MSD) personnel who had been tasked with is security was withdrawn and Mr. Ganesan was left with two police constables.
Mr. Ganesan had been provided additional security in the aftermath of the killing of the co-founder of the Civil Monitoring Commission Parliamentarian Nadaraja Raviraj in November 2006, in Colombo, as Mr. Ganesan himself had received death threats.
The Civil Monitoring Commission engages in monitoring, documenting and advocacy work regarding disappearances, abductions and killings, and has been frequently submitting cases of human rights violations and issues of impunity to the Parliament, as well as the local and international media. Mr. Ganesan, who has always been very vocal on recent abductions and disappearances of individuals from the Tamil community, was also instrumental in facilitating a meeting of family members of those disappeared since 2006, with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, during her visit to Sri Lanka in October 2007. The CMC had also filed a number of cases to the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances on behalf of family members of the disappeared.
The Observatory fears that the withdrawal of these security measures might aim at sanctioning his human rights activities, all the more as it took place one week after Mr. Ganesan be awarded the runner up position for the US government's Freedom Defenders Award 2007. At the end of December 2007, Mr. Ganesan had to leave his country by fear for his security.
Furthermore, on January 1, 2008, Mr. Thiyagarajah Maheswaran, a Colombo district parliamentarian of the opposition United National Party (UNP) and former Hindu Affairs Minister, was killed by an unknown gunman while attending New Year Day prayers inside the Ponnambala Vanesvarar Hindu temple in Kotahena suburb (Colombo). Mr. Maheswaran's assassination took place a few hours after he had told media in Colombo that he would reveal details in Parliament of how the Sri Lankan government carries out abductions and killings in Jaffna through the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) paramilitary. In December 2007, the Government of Sri Lanka had also reduced the security provided to him as a parliamentarian, from eighteen persons to only two.
The Observatory expresses its deep concern about Mr. Maheswaran's assassination as well as about the withdrawal of Mr. Ganesan's security measures, which illustrate the situation of extreme insecurity faced by human rights defenders in Sri Lanka, especially since the intensification of the conflict in July 2006. The Observatory further fears that the end of the 2002 ceasefire agreement between the Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which was called of on January 2, 2008 by the Government, might lead to a further deterioration of the human rights defenders' situation in the country.
Actions requested:
Please write to the authorities of Sri Lanka asking them to:
i. Guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Mano Ganeshan and of all Sri Lankan human rights defenders;
ii. Order a thorough and impartial investigation into the killing of Mr. Thiyagarajah Maheswaran, in order to identify all those responsible, bring them before a civil competent and impartial tribunal and apply to them the penal sanctions provided by the law;
iii. Put an end to all acts of harassment against all human rights defenders and humanitarian workers in Sri Lanka;
iv. Conform with the provisions of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 9, 1998, especially its Article 1, which states that "everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels", and Article 12.2, which provides that "the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration";
v. Ensure in all circumstances respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with international human rights standards and international instruments ratified by the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.
Addresses:
- President Mahinda Rajapakse, Presidential Secretariat, Colombo 1, Sri Lanka, Fax: + 94 11 2446657 / +94 11 2472100.
- Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Secretary, Ministry of Defence, 15/5 Baladaksha Mawatha, Colombo 3, Sri Lanka, Fax: +94 11 2446 300 / +94 11 2541 529
- Mr. Victor Perera, Inspector General of Police, New Secretariat, Colombo 1, Sri Lanka, Fax: +94 11 2 440440 / 327877. E-mail: igp@police.lk
- Mr. C.R. De Silva, Attorney General, Attorney General's Department, Colombo 12, Sri Lanka, Fax: +94 11 2 436421, Email: attorney@sri.lanka.net
- National Police Commission, 3rd Floor, Rotunda Towers, 109 Galle Road, Colombo 03, Sri Lanka, Tel: +94 11 2 395310. Fax: +94 11 2 395867. E-mail: npcgen@sltnet.lk
- Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, No. 36, Kynsey Road, Colombo 8, Sri Lanka. Tel: +94 11 2 694 925 / 673 806. Fax: +94 11 2 694 924 / 696 470. E-mail: sechrc@sltnet.lk
- Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Sri Lanka, 56 rue De Moillebeau, 5th Floor, 12119 Geneva 19, Switzerland, Fax: + 41-22 734 90 84, E-mail: mission.srilanka@ties.itu.int
Please also write to the diplomatic mission or embassy of Sri Lanka in your respective country.
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Geneva - Paris, January 14, 2008
