{"id":234962,"date":"2023-12-07T14:23:31","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T08:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=234962"},"modified":"2023-12-07T21:28:22","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T15:58:22","slug":"tamils-detained-for-commemorating-war-dead-9-held-under-abusive-pta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/tamils-detained-for-commemorating-war-dead-9-held-under-abusive-pta\/","title":{"rendered":"Tamils Detained For Commemorating War Dead: 9 Held Under Abusive PTA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sri Lankan\u00a0authorities have detained nine ethnic Tamils under the country’s abusive counterterrorism law for commemorating those who died in the 1983-2009 civil war, Human Rights Watch said today.<\/p>\n

The Sri Lankan government has repeatedly assured international allies, trading partners, and the United Nations that it would replace the\u00a0Prevention of Terrorism Act<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(PTA), which has long been used to arbitrarily detain and torture minority community members and civil society activists. The government should immediately release all those arbitrarily detained under the PTA and place a moratorium on its use until it can be repealed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Sri Lankan authorities\u2019 use of a counterterrorism law against Tamils commemorating those who died in the civil war is cruelly abusive and further marginalizes a community that\u00a0already faces persistent government discrimination<\/a><\/span>,\u201d said\u00a0Meenakshi Ganguly<\/a>,<\/span> deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. \u201cPresident Ranil Wickremesinghe speaks of \u2018reconciliation,\u2019 but his government\u2019s actions only serve to deepen ethnic divisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The authorities arrested those newly detained under the PTA between November 25 and 27 in Batticaloa, in the Eastern Province, and\u00a0confiscated decorations and loudspeakers<\/a><\/span>\u00a0from a commemoration vigil. Since the civil war between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ended in 2009 with the separatist armed group\u2019s complete defeat, successive administrations have prevented Tamils from publicly memorializing the war dead.<\/p>\n

On December 2, police in Mullaitivu district, in the Northern Province,\u00a0reportedly shut down an event at a Hindu temple<\/a><\/span>\u00a0to commemorate the Sri Lankan army\u2019s 1984 massacre of Tamil villagers in Othiyamalai. Preventing ethnic and religious minorities from conducting ceremonies to commemorate the dead violates the rights to freedom of religion, belief, expression, and association, Human Rights Watch said.<\/p>\n

Soon after taking office in July 2022, President Wickremesinghe ended a short-lived moratorium on the use of the PTA. A previous administration, in which Wickremesinghe was prime minister, had pledged in 2017 to repeal the law when it rejoined\u00a0a European Union trading program called the Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP+)<\/a><\/span>. The GSP+ grants tariff-free access for Sri Lankan exports conditioned on compliance with international human rights conventions. Sri Lankan authorities have repeatedly renewed the pledge but never carried it out.<\/p>\n

Many of Sri Lanka\u2019s international partners, including the\u00a0United States<\/a>,\u00a0European Union<\/a><\/span>, and\u00a0United Kingdom<\/a><\/span>, as well as the United Nations\u00a0Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights<\/a><\/span>, criticized the recent PTA detentions.<\/p>\n

The administration has also used the PTA to restrict criticism of government management of the economy and other policies. In August 2022,\u00a0three student activists were detained under the law<\/a><\/span>\u00a0for protesting the government\u2019s handling of the economic crisis. Other activists say that they fear being arrested under the PTA for speaking out and that the government is constraining civil society organizations\u2019 access to funding, particularly donations from abroad, under the guise of \u201ccountering terrorist financing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0International Monetary Fund<\/span><\/a>\u00a0(IMF), which is providing Sri Lanka with a US$3 billion loan, reported in September that civil society\u2019s \u201coversight and monitoring\u201d of government actions is \u201crestricted \u2026 by broad application of counter-terrorism rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

In\u00a0a November report<\/span><\/a>\u00a0on Sri Lanka\u2019s compliance with its human rights obligations under the GSP+ trading arrangement, the EU found that \u201cthe treatment of minorities remains a concern in particular as efforts towards reconciliation are slow, and the 1979 Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) continues to be applied including after the protest movements in 2022, causing fear among the population and suffocating dissent. Substantial reform or repeal of the PTA in line with human rights standards remains a priority, just as Sri Lanka\u2019s need to re-commit to reconciliation and accountability.\u201d Despite Sri Lanka\u2019s failure to comply with its six-year-old pledge to reform the PTA, the EU continues to extend GSP+ benefits to the country.<\/p>\n

On September 15, the government published the latest version of its proposed replacement counterterrorism legislation. It then withdrew the bill for further revisions after widespread\u00a0domestic<\/a><\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0international<\/a><\/span>\u00a0criticism that it reproduced many of the abusive provisions of the current law while creating new speech-related offenses that could be used to suppress dissent.<\/p>\n

The government recently proposed another law, the\u00a0Online Safety Bill<\/a><\/span>, that could also be used to restrict freedom of expression by creating a commission, appointed by the president, which would decide whether online statements are false or prohibited. The commission could order the removal of online statements and participate in police investigations and prosecutions of those accused of posting them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Sri Lankan government\u2019s latest misuse of the PTA should be a strong reminder to the EU that its GSP+ requirements are being ignored,\u201d Ganguly said. \u201cThe European Union and EU governments need to make their displeasure with this turn of events known.\u201d (By HRW)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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