Committee Against Torture Slams Sri Lanka

By Easwaran Rutnam

The Committee Against Torture (CAT) which examined a report on Sri Lanka last week at the UN in Geneva, said that there were over 5,000 enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka, persons held without trial and incommunicado under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and alleged secret detention facilities.
Felice Gaer, the Committee Expert who served as Rapporteur for the report on Sri Lanka, said that despite Sri Lanka claiming ‘at no time has the Government resorted to or acquiesced to acts of torture’, the Committee had received extensive allegations of torture and ill-treatment by the State party, ranging from ordinary corners of the country to the centre of the conflict zone.
The allegations included cases of disappeared persons, acts of cruelty and ill treatment by the police, harassment of humanitarian workers, human rights lawyers, journalists and ordinary persons, of secret detention centres and of deaths in custody.
There was a huge lack of data and statistics, of independent investigations into cases of alleged torture and of prosecutions, Gaer said.
Other Committee experts raised questions about specific cases of alleged torture, forced disappearances and particularly harassment of human rights lawyers and activists.
Detention facilities, prison overcrowding and specific allegations of torture in prisons were also raised, as were the supposed ‘rehabilitation camps’ which some experts said were alleged to be actually mass detention centres under military rule.
Experts also asked about impunity, deaths in custody, fair trials, especially juvenile justice and detention facilities for children, the rights of domestic workers and gender based violence towards women and children.
Mohan Pieris, President’s Counsel and Senior Legal Advisor to the Cabinet on Legal Affairs, however said that despite grave atrocities committed by non-State actors, Sri Lanka had not invoked any justification for torture, nor resorted to or acquiesced to torture.
He also said that legislation to reform the Criminal Code in order to eliminate the opportunity of torture was being considered, as was the proposed introduction of a duty attorney in every police division.