FM protests against US State Dept’s HR Report

Foreign Minister, Rohitha Bogollagama told the US Ambassador Robert Blake that the report presents a distorted view of the actual situation in Sri Lanka during 2007 and is unfortunately a litany of unsubstantiated allegations, innuendo and vituperative exaggerations.

It was noted that there was a suspicious similarity between the comments made in the report and the views expressed by those deliberately seeking to denigrate the Government of Sri Lanka.

While Sri Lanka had concerns with respect to human rights in the late 2006 and early 2007, the government had taken a range of positive steps to address these concerns. The government was confident that the situation will continue to improve. Human rights was an important issue for the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL), he said.

The Minister who said the Foreign Ministry was in the process of preparing a detailed response on the issues raised in the US State Department Report, went on to share Sri Lanka’s objections to the conclusions of the State Department report.

It was noted that while there had been allegations of increased killings and abductions in the latter part of 2006, and the first quarter of 2007, due to the escalation of terrorist attacks by the LTTE, the international humanitarian organisation, the ICRC, which has regular access to all parts of Sri Lanka, except the LTTE controlled areas in the north and the east, has confirmed a distinct downward trend in disappearances and unexplained killings in government controlled areas during the second and third quarters of 2007.

According to the ICRC figures, contrary to the State Department assertion, this decline was also evident in the Jaffna district.

Notwithstanding the access the US State Department has had to the confidential report shared by the ICRC with GOSL, through its Embassy in Colombo, it is deeply regretted that the U.S. State Department appears to have ignored the improvement on the ground and relied on dubious sources which also feed the LTTE propaganda machine.

It was emphasized that this improvement in the ground situation has been achieved due to action by GOSL, through (a) the re-issuing of Presidential guidelines on arrests, and detention in July 2006 (b) training of security forces and police personnel in International Humanitarian Law, with 95% of the Army already having received such training, (c) the setting up of an Independent Commission of Inquiry (COI), (d) the crackdown by the police, (e) the detention and arrest of Security Forces personnel, accused of running abduction and extortion racquets, as well as, (f) issuing of indictments against offenders in the security forces and police.

It is ironically disappointing that none of the improvements are properly acknowledged in the report.

It was regretted that the report also failed to appreciate the bold step taken by GOSL as early as in November 2006 to appoint an independent Commission of Inquiry (COI), to investigate and inquire into 16 incidents of serious violations of human rights.

This was followed in February 2007 by the constitution of the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) to observe proceedings in order to ensure that such work conformed with international standards.

These steps were heralded as groundbreaking by the international community at the time they came into operation.

The Government also regretted that for an official government document, it is unfortunate that the US State Department report bases itself on newspaper reports, speculation and hearsay.

Referring to comments in the Report with regard to the list of 355 alleged disappearances submitted by the US Ambassador, it was pointed out that it borders on the ridiculous, given the satisfaction expressed by the US Embassy itself on the efforts made to trace these people.

Twenty three of them are well and alive. With regard to over 120, no complaints have been made to the police.